


Hakai

by siluria



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Case Fic, Community: casestory, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-01
Updated: 2012-07-01
Packaged: 2017-11-08 22:39:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/448337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siluria/pseuds/siluria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Yakuza aren’t about to let go of their influence on Hawaii, and when one of their ‘bosses’ arrives on the Island the team want nothing more than to see them gone again.  Steve especially, because he's still trying to work out where he stands with Danny since his return from Japan with Wo Fat.  But before they can find out why the Yakuza boss is here, two bodies are found in a forest reserve, their burials years apart.  The deeper the team digs, the further away from the Yakuza threat they’re pulled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hakai

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Art for Siluria's Hakai](https://archiveofourown.org/works/444310) by [taibhrigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh). 
  * Inspired by [Art for siluria's Hakai](https://archiveofourown.org/works/448782) by [theeverdream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theeverdream/pseuds/theeverdream). 



> The story is set between 2x22 and 2x23, and there are spoilers for 2x22.
> 
> Written for the Casestory Big Bang on Livejournal.
> 
> Copious amounts of thanks need to go to [Kayim](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayim/pseuds/Kayim) and [taibhrigh](http://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh).
> 
> ART:  
> I also need to thank [taibhrigh](http://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh) for the gorgeous artwork - [click here!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/444310%20)
> 
> And also to [theverdream](http://archiveofourown.org/users/theeverdream/pseuds/theeverdream), who managed to make death so beautiful - [click here!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/448782).
> 
> Thank you both!!!

[](http://imgbox.com/N1e3LMVH)

Art by taibhrigh

[](http://imgbox.com/GmolsQqB)

Art by theeverdream

xxxxxxx

So you’re not going to talk to me now?” Tim yelled at the rapidly departing back of his girlfriend. His footing was unsteady as he slid down the hill in the mud while trying to make up ground.

When Jessie suddenly swung round to face to him and glared, her face all the more forceful in the weak torch light, his feet slid out from under him and he landed hard in the wet mud.

“You really don’t want me to talk to you right now,” she growled.

Tim clenched his teeth as he felt the wetness sinking through the seat of his jeans. He tried to shake off some of the mud that covered the hand he’d stretched out on instinct to break his fall, but it was pointless. It was going to take a long hot shower before he could wash away every speck of rust red dirt, and longer still for Jessie to forgive him for the disastrous camping trip. All he’d wanted to do was have a break from the squabble that was his siblings, and the threats from Jessie’s deadbeat father; the thought of a camping trip, somewhere off the beaten track, had seemed a good idea at the time.

That was until the storm rolled in, and their tent, sleeping bags and backpacks washed away with the loose earth and beyond their reach.

Jessie strode off again and Tim didn’t have the energy to chase after her in the mood she was in. He turned his gaze upward, blinking as fat drops of rain hit his face from where they had managed to break through the canopy of leaves and branches. They should have waited until morning, found some cover somewhere, but Jessie had gotten pissed off with it all and Tim had been eyeing the eroded cliff faces behind what had been their camp with nervousness. With the rain coming down they were lucky they hadn’t been caught up in a mudslide already.

Tim wiped the sodden sleeve of his sweater across his face, trying to brush away some of the water hanging to his eyelashes that was blurring his vision. He used the already mud-caked hand to lever himself upright again, grabbing hold of a tree branch when his feet started a slow slide down the gradient. As he reached down for his dropped flashlight the light started to flicker. Panic set in and he grabbed for it, hoping that the sloshing sound he heard wasn’t water in the battery compartment. But the light flickered again, and didn’t come back on no matter how hard he shook or hit the light.

In the sudden all-encompassing darkness he dropped back against the nearest tree trunk and wrapped his arms around his middle. He was debating whether or not to shout for Jessie or phone her, if there was any service, but that thought came with the sudden realization that his cell phone was in the back pocket of his jeans, right where he had landed in the mud. He pulled it out to check, but the screen was dead and there was no life when he tried the power button. It wasn’t even midnight. It was a long time until first light, a long time in the middle of the woods in a tropical storm.

“Jessie?” he screamed. “Don’t leave me here, please!”

He didn’t know which was louder – the hammering of his heart or the shattering sound of the thunder overhead. That was until he heard Jessie’s scream.

*******

“You’re bluffing,” Kono sing-songed as she tossed a handful of M&Ms into the dish that sat in the middle of Steve’s kitchen table. She popped one from her stash in her mouth as she leant back again. “So I’ll call your raise.”

Steve shrugged, not letting his expression waver from the smirk he’d worn all round. He had a good idea what cards Kono had in front of her, and he could guess what two cards she thought he had tucked under his beer bottle. “Chin?”

Chin shook his head and tossed his cards towards the deck. “Too rich for me,” he sighed before slouching back in his chair.

“Down to you, boss,” Kono grinned. “Let’s see them!”

Steve tossed a stray piece of the candy into his mouth as he leaned forward in his chair. He made a show of taking a pull from the beer bottle as he moved the cards out from under it. The beer was warm and flat, so he downed the rest of the bottle.

“C’mon babe,” Danny said around a mouthful of chips, “the storm will be over and done with by the time this game ends.”

Steve smirked and turned over his cards, flicking them onto the pile of M&Ms that sat in the center of the table.

Kono sighed and sagged in her seat, turning her own cards over far more sedately. “Jesus boss, where did you learn to shark?”

“Are you forgetting that our leader here likes feed suspects to those sharks while shooting the cap off a cold one?” Danny asked as he collected all the cards and piled them back up into a neat deck.

Steve locked eyes with Danny, grinning wide at the humor he read in the familiar warm blue. He reluctantly tore his gaze away, the selfish part of him wishing that it was just the two of them stuck behind four walls as the storm raged around them. Shaking his head he reached for the pot and emptied the contents into his own. “What else do you think we do in our down time while out at sea? And while you’re talking of cold ones…” he added, waving his empty bottle in Danny’s direction.

Danny passed the deck to Chin before he stood and reached over to grab a handful of M&Ms from Steve’s stash. He managed to dodge Steve’s attempt to slap his hand away as he headed to the fridge to get fresh beers. “However, I also happen to know that someone’s been practicing while getting his ass handed to him by Grace,” Danny called over his shoulder, voice muffled by the mouthful of candy.

“Thanks for keeping quiet about that, Danno,” Steve muttered as Danny handed out the beers.

The laughter rippled round the table, the tail of it drowned out by a particularly loud clap of thunder. The light bulbs flickered before finally opting to stay lit.

“Just how bad do these storms get anyway?” Danny asked.

Chin shrugged as he shuffled the deck of cards. “Depends which way the wind is blowing, brah.”

Danny snorted. “Does the weather work on island time too?” 

“What doesn’t?” Kono said as she sorted her M&Ms into different colored piles. “C’mon Cuz are you going to shuffle all night or are you actually going to deal them?”

Steve relaxed back in his chair and grinned at the good-natured bickering as it went back and forth around the table. They might not have intended for tonight to end up with beer, snacks and a friendly game of hold’em, but Steve could think of worse places to weather out the storm. He’d been trying to keep the team together more in the aftermath of his homecoming, not that he’d had to put much effort into keeping Danny close. His partner hadn’t left his side for long in the couple of weeks since he came home from Japan.

He’d initially felt let down by Kono’s relationship with Adam Noshimuri, but with each betrayed look that Danny tried to hide when he looked at him, Steve realized that he had little he could make judgment on. He knew Kono was feeling Adam’s absence, and the happiness she’d obviously found outweighed the guilt she had at keeping her secret. Steve found he couldn’t begrudge her for that when he’d found his own happiness with Danny.

Steve suspected Chin and Kono knew about them, probably had since Danny moved back in with him last month. And maybe it was time to be open about it, but Steve still wasn’t sure what it was the two of them had. He knew how he felt, what it meant to have Danny with him, to want him, but all Steve could see right now was the hurt that Danny was trying to conceal when he looked at him in the quieter moments. They’d fallen into bed together since he’d got back from Japan, there were too many sparks between them for the flame to go out, but there was a hesitancy about Danny now during the day to day routines that tore at Steve, even though he fully understood why. He’d hated himself a little more each time Danny’s name had flashed up on the screen of his cell while he was in Japan. If he could have protected Danny and kept him in the loop he would have, but the safety of his team, his family, was something Steve wasn’t going to compromise on, even if it cost him the chance to be with Danny. Because at least then he’d be safe and alive.

He glanced over his shoulder and through the glass doors to the deck as the lighting flashed hot and bright in the night sky. If he was on his own he’d have the doors open, letting the charge in the air wash over him and the heavy beat of the rain relax him. If it had been just him and Danny he’d demonstrate to him just what that charge felt like when two bodies were pressed together, drenched in sweat with the cool breeze coming through an open window.

The nudge in his ribs reminded him that it wasn’t just the two of them. Danny’s hands flailed into his vision, and Steve had to duck his head at the knowing smirk on Danny’s face. “You playing or daydreaming? C’mon.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Steve muttered as he turned up the corners of his cards. He tossed a handful of candy into the center dish just as his cell started ringing. “No looking,” he warned, a finger pointing in Danny’s direction as he slipped from his chair to grab his cell from the counter.

Danny pouted. “Hey, it’s not me you have to worry about, you should be watching the terrible twosome here.” For Danny’s trouble he had an accurately thrown green M&M bounce off his forehead. Steve watched Danny glare at Kono as he popped the candy in his mouth. “Yeah, I’m talking about you rookie.”

“Bite me.”

Steve tuned them out as he glanced at the display on his cell as it flashed Governor Denning’s name at him. “McGarrett.”

“ _Commander, I’m sorry to disturb your evening_.”

“That’s not a problem, sir, we’re just sitting out the storm, you’re not interrupting anything.” Steve turned his back on the now quiet table and put some distance between himself and the others. “What can I do for you?”

“ _I’ve had an alert passed through to me from immigration. Apparently we have a senior Yakuza representative on the islands. With what happened with Wo Fat and Noshimuri I don’t want to see anyone else here thinking they can fill their shoes._ ”

Steve’s jaw tightened. “Do we know who it is?”

“ _Kuro Takeru. He was a boss of one of the seedier areas of Tokyo with a reputation for no-nonsense ‘policing’. There are a number of homicides attributed to their section, and while the evidence can’t be linked directly back to Takeru we’re convinced he’s calling the shots._ ”

“Can you send me anything you have from immigration and any intel? We’ll get started from here until the storm dies down?” Steve risked a look over his shoulder, finding that he had the full sober attention of the rest of the team.

“ _There’s an e-mail heading your way now._ ” Steve could hear faint clicks of a keyboard at the other end of the phone, and his cell vibrated seconds later.

Steve scrubbed a hand across his face, his grip tightening around his cell. There were enough thoughts running through his head, from another Wo Fat taking over on the Islands, to someone checking the lay of the land before they chose to eliminate any threats. He looked over to the rest of his team. It wasn’t going to happen on his watch.

“Is he travelling alone?” 

“ _He’s declared he’s travelling with his wife, but for all we know it could be a mistress or his black widow. He could have any number of gang members travelling with him, or meeting him here._ ” Steve sighed in frustration. “ _Steve?_ ”

The familiarity in the use of his first name startled him. “Sir?”

“ _Watch yourself out there._ ”

He nodded once, even though he knew the Governor couldn’t see it. “We will. I’ll keep you updated.”

“ _I hope so. If I hear anything further I’ll be in touch.”_ Denning paused, and Steve wasn’t certain if he was waiting on him to say anything, but just as he opened his mouth to acknowledge Denning spoke up again. _”Do whatever you think you need to Commander, and I’ll back you. I want him dealt with before he can act._ ”

Steve paused, frowning over Denning’s choice of words and how the order went against everything that had been said on their first meeting, and that had been reinforced after what happened with the Russians. Denning had the team walking on egg-shells, worrying about every action that might see them disbanded. He knew the team had relaxed after the incident with the Russian Embassy, but Steve had been warned afterwards that no further acts like that would be tolerated.

Steve hadn’t told anyone about that conversation, not even Danny. They were on their last warning, but the team didn’t need that hanging over them, the responsibility for their actions was Steve’s alone. As such it was a surprise to hear Denning’s about face, and he couldn’t help but wonder at the motivations behind it, he just hoped he’d find out in the contents of the e-mail. He wasn’t sure what he should say in reply, but the call ended before Steve could say anything, and the room was ominously silent, just the crash of thunder and the hammering of the rain.

“So?” Danny pressed. It was always Danny who pressed him. “What did Denning want?”

Steve scratched the back of his neck. “Seems like we have a new Yakuza boss on the Islands. We just don’t know why right now.”

“Do you think he’s after you?” Chin asked.

Steve shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Could be after me, could be after anyone close to me,” he added solemnly, and he turned his attention back to his team, catching each of their eyes in turn until he met Danny’s gaze. “He could be cleaning house in preparation for the new administration, or a distraction for something going down.”

“Or cleaning up any loose ends before they walk away,” Danny pointed out. “We’ve taken out Wo Fat and Noshimuri. They don’t have a governor in their pockets anymore, and the cops, _us_ , are above any amount of money they could offer to turn a blind eye. Maybe it’s too much hassle for them to bring in a replacement.”

Leaning back against the counter, Steve folded his arms across his chest, and turned his mind back to their problem, trying not to think about whether Denning was linked into this or not based on his reaction. “Well, whatever he’s here for, we need to ID him to be able to find him and keep watch on him, and that’s our first job. Denning’s sent me an e-mail with the information and intelligence, so we see what we’ve got and then we go from there. I also want to know who he flew in with, just in case he’s the decoy for someone else.”

Danny moved to stand by his side, a hand rested against one of Steve’s biceps. He tried to relax, knowing Danny would feel the tension in his tightly folded arms. Danny’s hand squeezed lightly as if he knew what Steve was trying to do, but his gaze had drifted out of the window. Steve followed his attention to the flash of lightning that lit the ocean beyond the garden like the glare of a strobe light.

“We’re not heading out until this storm’s died down a bit,” Danny muttered.

Steve huffed out a breath, inactivity not sitting well with him when all of his instincts screamed _threat_ and demanded he act on them.

“You still got your laptop here?” Chin asked, breaking into the relative silence.

Steve smiled in relief. “I’ll go get it,” he said, before stepping away from the counter, Danny’s hand slipping from his arm.

“I’ll make the coffee,” Kono added, jumping up from her seat and heading to the coffee maker.

“And I’ll…” Danny paused, looking around the room. “I guess I’ll clear up,” he sighed.

*******

Danny came awake sluggishly as his shoulder was gripped, allowing himself a moment to blink some focus back into his vision. He scrubbed a hand over his face when he recognized the dimly lit surroundings of Steve’s living room.

“You good?” Steve asked, his voiced hushed in deference to Chin who was still sleeping in what looked to Danny like a prime cramp-inducing position on one of the chairs.

“Yeah,” Danny breathed. “I’m up.” Steve stepped back as Danny shuffled to a sitting position, and Danny raised his head to give him a once over. “Did you sleep at all?” he asked once he’d spotted the dark circles under Steve’s eyes. He’d changed and showered, taken off the layer of yesterday’s stubble but Danny wouldn’t really be surprised if that had all been done in the last fifteen minutes. He got his answer when Steve shrugged. He peered around him to see Kono at the table with the laptop silently shaking her head in confirmation.

“We’ve got a case,” Steve said as he clipped his holster to his belt.

“The Yakuza?” Danny asked, after rubbing the grit from his eyes.

Steve shook his head. “I don’t think so. Sounds like the not-so-regular 9-to-5.”

“Okay, give me ten to freshen up,” he sighed as he pushed himself to his feet, although inwardly he was cursing the bad timing.

It was closer to fifteen minutes later when he came back down the stairs, but Danny was pleased to note that while his showers weren’t up to the precise timing of the Navy, they were at least still quick enough for a cop on an early-hours call-out. He glanced at the time as he fastened his watch, grimacing. The light through the windows was minimal, but Danny could see some of the storm damage to the trees, and the heavy branches lying on the lawn beyond them.

Chin was up too by the time Danny made it back downstairs, and Danny spared a moment to grab a mug of fresh coffee while he could. Steve was in the middle of apologizing for having to ask the two cousins to head into the office to continue the so far fruitless search for their Yakuza boss, and Danny doubted that meant he’d have time to grab breakfast.

“We’ve got it covered,” Chin said calmly.

Steve nodded in thanks.

“And I’ve got you covered,” Danny said, poking a finger into Steve’s bicep. “As usual. Not that that’s an invitation for you to be your usual careless self. Are you going to tell me what we’ve got?”

Steve grabbed a plaid over-shirt from the back of a dining room chair and snatched up a pack from the floor beside it. “We’re taking the truck.”

“What, no Camaro?” Danny asked as he quickly downed the rest of his coffee, wincing at the burn from the hot liquid as he swallowed. He quickly grabbed his gun and shield and caught up to Steve’s retreating back. He was tempted to get Steve to stay inside, somewhere safe where the Yakuza’s reach wouldn’t get to him, but Danny knew Steve would balk and do the opposite if he even suggested it. Plus, he knew Steve would counteract by not putting anyone else in the line of fire should their visitor decide to get too close. Trying to stop a determined Steve wasn’t something Danny could handle after only three hours sleep.

“Not where we’re going. Chin, Kono,” he called as he reached the door. “Let me know what you get, we’ll be in touch with what we need from the crime scene.”

“You got it boss,” Kono answered as she started to gather up the notes they’d made through the night. “We’ll lock up behind us.”

Steve waved a hand and opened the front door. He was silent until he pulled the truck out of the driveway and Danny waited him out.

“A couple of campers were out in Kaipapau Forest last night.”

Danny turned in his seat and stared at him. “In that weather?”

Steve shrugged. “They didn’t count on the storm, or it taking out their camp, but then I doubt they bothered with a camping permit either and so were off the trails. They were making their way back down when they literally tripped over a body. They couldn’t get cell reception and it took them a while to get back into range by which time they realized they’d gotten themselves turned around and lost. It’s taken HPD four hours to find both them and the scene. Turns out it’s not one body but at least two and with the state of decomposition we’re looking at potentially decades between the victims. The storm caused the topsoil to wash away revealing parts of the bodies, and at the moment they haven’t even started excavating.”

“Isn’t that also a hunting reserve?” Danny asked, his tired sluggish mind starting to kick into gear.

Steve shrugged lopsidedly as he navigated around a slow-moving refuse truck. “Yeah. At least one body is relatively fresh, but from what I can work out the other is skeletal. Last I heard Max was hiking up but there’s no cell reception so we’ll have to go take a look anyway. We may have to think about getting GPR out to see if there are any more bodies but we’ll need to see the lay of the land to know if it’s worth it.”

Danny sighed and nodded. The ground penetrating radar was pretty standard kit with multiple bodies being uncovered. He figured they were in for a long day, before he frowned as he suddenly realized what taking the truck meant. He glanced down at his pale grey pants and loafers and sighed.

“You couldn’t tell me we were going hiking in the mud before we left the house?” Danny swore he’d wipe the smirk off his partner’s face before the morning was out. “I hate you.”

If anything Steve’s grin got wider, and given last night’s events Danny figured he’d cut Steve some slack, well, as long as he’d packed breakfast that was.

*******

Steve scratched idly at the itch on his lower back where sweat trickled down his spine, exacerbated by the pack he was carrying. Danny was momentarily quiet as he trudged through the mud after him, mostly because he was chewing on a breakfast bar that Steve had grabbed from a cupboard before they left the house – Steve had no doubt he’d start up again once he’d devoured it. He’d also grabbed Danny’s boots from the haphazard pile of his partner’s footwear in the closet, but although that had appeased the other man for a short while, the bottom of his pant legs were rapidly turning rust colored. Steve expected to see a new pair of pants on Danny’s next expense report.

As they passed he nodded to another of the HPD uniforms that were posted intermittently in the woods marking the trail to the scene. Not that Steve needed them there, even Danny could follow the tracks left by the mass of people that had gone before them. 

It wasn’t long before the sound of the crime scene was heard through the trees, even if Steve couldn’t yet see it. Minutes later the spacing of trees widened, opening up into a clearing barely large enough to be comfortable for the people that were trying to work in it and avoid the cordoned off areas. The mud was still wet, and not even the hot sun breaking through the thinner canopy of leaves was capable of drying it out with all the feet trampling through it.

“Finally,” Danny muttered from behind him as Steve slipped the pack from his shoulders. He grabbed a bottle of water and held it out, Danny taking it with a grateful nod. Steve grabbed one for himself, uncapping it and taking a long pull before getting a good look at the scene.

Tape was marking two areas, and Steve could see what looked like an arm, stark white against the mud. The slim fingers were almost translucent against the redness of the ground where the limb broke through the water-logged surface. From where he stood, Steve couldn’t make out what the other area was indicating but knew it had to represent the other body. Steve dropped the half-empty water bottle on top of his pack when he spotted Max, decked out in a set of waders that zipped to his armpits, kneeling in the mud. He smiled and shook his head before bending back to the pack to retrieve a couple of sets of gloves, handing one set off to Danny.

“Hey Max,” Steve greeted as he stopped at the ME’s side. As he snapped on the gloves Steve glanced over Max’s shoulder and could just make out the piece of bone in the mud.

“Ah, gentlemen,” Max said as he turned, offering them a wide smile.

“What have we got?” Danny asked.

Max pushed himself back to his feet and headed to where the arm was visible. “I can’t say much until we fully uncover our victims, however I can tell you that this one is female and from the state of decay, allowing for the wet weather and the saturation of the soil that the time of death is sometime in the last week. However I can’t say for certain when she died until I can determine her age and the cause of death.”

Danny bent down to look at the limb. “How long before you can get her out?” he asked softly.

Steve could hear the respect in Danny’s voice, and he nudged Danny’s knee with his leg in quiet support.

“I have people on their way with some equipment and I requested a forensics team to assist with the scene preservation prior to the removal of the skeleton. Making sure we excavate around the bones to leave them in the position they were interred may be the only way to properly determine how they died. However I’m expecting a large degree of post-mortem movement, especially with the storm last night. There also appears to be some evidence of fire exposure.”

“Fire would explain the relatively open area in comparison to the rest of the forest.” Steve inclined his head towards the other cordoned off area. “What can you tell us right now?”

Max stepped back to where he’d been kneeling when they arrived. “I can tell you this is a humerus, definitely human, but as to whether the body is male or female, or even a complete specimen, I cannot say at present.”

Steve cast his eyes around the clearing, noticing now the way the edge sloped off and the lack of vegetation beyond that. “Any idea on how long they’ve been here?”

Max spread his arms and shrugged. “Aging bones is very difficult and a matter of multiple factors. Based on my best guess of the acidity of the soil all I can say is five to ten years. However depending on how close to burial the fire occurred could alter that significantly. I will have to get the remains back to the lab to be able to give you a better figure.”

Steve sighed and looked over the scene again. “GPR’s not going to help until this dries out, if at all.”

Max shook his head. “It’s far too wet and unsettled with the groundwater for the readings to be of use.”

Steve folded his arms over his chest and looked down at his feet, he lifted one foot and the boot sluggishly let go of the mud sticking to it. He scanned the rest of the floor of the clearing, letting his eyes trail to the ground under the thicker cover of the canopy of leaves and branches. Two bodies in such close proximity, and with the time between their apparent burial meant someone knew enough about both.

“Most of the forest floor around here is matted with pine needles, that kind of surface would protect the ground from mud slides. We need to talk to the Ranger Service, see if there’s anything special about this area.”

“What are you saying?” Danny asked.

Steve shrugged. “Until this dries out I’m not certain, but enough of the usual forest floor detritus has been cleared from this area, at least twice in ten years to allow the burial of two bodies. The Ranger Service should be able to give some indication if there’s been some deforestation or conservation work. We need to know who comes through here. Someone was here sometime in the last week. The only evidence that’s going to be left after that storm is what might have been packed in the ground.”

“And you’re hoping the Ranger Service will have a nice list we can turn into suspects.” Danny rested his hands on his hips and turned as the sounds of movement came from the forest. Steve followed his gaze as what he guessed was Max’s forensic team appeared with their equipment. Steve knew it would take hours, if not a couple of days, to fully uncover the second body and make sure there were no other bodies at the site, and with the small working area they had, he and Danny would just be in the way.

“Max, let us know when you get the female uncovered. Keep me posted on the other one. We’ll be back once you’re ready to move the bodies out.”

Max nodded. “Certainly.”

Steve nodded his thanks. As he picked up the pack he’d left to one side, he noticed what looked like faint scratches across the tree trunk, crisscrossing lines going against the grain of the bark. He traced the lines with his still gloved fingers trying to determine whether they were random tool marks or more organized, but they were too faint to pick anything up. He pulled out his cell and snapped a photo, and a few of the burial sites before taking an extra moment to get the GPS position saved. He shouldered the pack before turning back down the hill.

“We’re heading out now?” Danny asked as he followed.

“There’s not enough room and we’re not going to do any good standing on the sidelines. We need to go talk to the Ranger Service, may as well do it now instead of waiting for Max to finish.”

“Can I go change first so I don’t look like I’ve been hiking through the forest for the last few hours?”

Steve turned and looked over his shoulder making a show of eyeing Danny from head to toe, the ruffled hair, the shirt left half-unbuttoned and crumpled sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the mud splattering up his legs. “You look fine to me,” he grinned. But then Danny always did.

Danny stopped in his tracks and glared. “Have I told you how much I hate you yet today?”

Steve chuckled and tightened the straps of the pack before setting off again. He needed to be back in cell range to see if Chin and Kono had got anywhere. And to make sure they were ok.

*******

Kono scrubbed her hands over her face, digging fingertips into her temples and trying to focus back on the screen through eyes that were puffed up with exhaustion. She blinked at the screen again, only to sigh in frustration when they still didn’t show her an answer. The search for Takeru was getting her nowhere fast, and researching the Yakuza only made her think of Adam more.

Even having spent the entirety of their relationship sneaking behind everyone’s backs, watching over their shoulders and lying to their respective people, she still would have kept what they had. There was still no word on what was going to happen to Adam, and Kono had spent so much time arguing with herself over going to see him in Halawa, only Steve’s request to wait was keeping her at home.

Someone else coming to take over the Yakuza operations made her worry. She trusted Adam to have told her the truth when he said he was shutting down the illegal operations. Someone else taking over would no doubt put everything back in place, and would be the threat to the Islands, to Steve especially, that the arrest of Wo Fat should have alleviated. The thought of it becoming a full-blown war between the Yakuza and Five-0 scared her. Surely having Adam in charge was the best option all round… and they wouldn’t have to hide any more. That was if Adam would ever talk to her again.

Movement outside her office shook her out of her thoughts and she slumped back in her chair as Chin came into her office and deposited a steaming mug of coffee on her desk. “I think my Google-fu is broken,” she muttered.

Chin chuckled as he perched on the corner of her desk, taking a sip from his own mug. “No luck I take it?”

Kono shook her head and gestured to the screen. “I can tell you what Takeru means as a word, but as far as attributing that to any particular person of interest all we have is the little that Denning sent us. Whatever legends he has out in Japan are like the ramblings of old men. There are plenty of crimes on record that have been listed to supposed lieutenants, but it’s only rumor that he’s giving the orders.”

“Maybe Steve is right about him being fed to us as a decoy, but we don’t know so right now all we can do is work with what we have.”

“I take it you didn’t get anywhere with the airport?” Kono asked, taking a long drink of the coffee.

“Not yet. I have the passenger list for his incoming flight into Honolulu, crosschecked that with his flight into Maui, and there are no matches outside of the happy couple so I’m going to look at other flights.”

“Well,” Kono started, putting the mug down, “the CCTV shows him and his wife getting into a black sedan but we lose it from the traffic cameras on Haleakala Highway. The car is registered to a hire company on the island, they confirm it was a one way trip, pre-ordered online three days before by a corporation in Tokyo. It’s a known Yakuza backed company. I’ve spoken to the driver and they met with another black sedan just off West Wakea Avenue. No plates,” she added with a sigh.

Chin echoed her frustration with a sigh of his own. “I’ve gone through the systems and I can’t see any large scale links to the Yakuza on Maui that would be enough to attract someone of Takeru’s supposed stature. It’s hard to believe they wouldn’t have a base of operations there, there are fewer cops to hide from for a start.”

“And so we’ve lost him.” Kono scrubbed her hands over her face and wrapped her fingers in her hair tugging, a little in the hope that the sting would take away some of the sluggishness. “Steve’s not going to be happy,” she sighed.

“He wasn’t,” Chin shrugged, “but then he wasn’t blaming us. You know how obsessed he gets with anything linked to the Yakuza.”

Kono shrugged, knowing from experience exactly what lengths Steve would go and the thought of going to him about Adam came up again, she mentally shrugged it back off again. “I take it they’re back in cell range. What was the deal on the crime scene?”

Chin stood back up again and beckoned Kono to follow him back to the tech table. Kono smirked when Chin placed his mug on the end of the table, putting that little moment to one side for later when he chewed her out for doing the same. Chin’s fingers flew across the screen bringing up a series of photos, the GPS coordinates plotted on a satellite image beside them.

“That’s the location of the site,” Chin pointed out. To Kono the location was just a red dot amid a sea of green, but as Chin zoomed in she noticed the break in the canopy of trees. “And the deal is not one body, but two.”

Kono raised an eyebrow, but let Chin continue.

"Steve and Danny are going to talk to the Rangers to see what the area is used for because it’s definitely off the trails. Steve also mentioned something about pulling the information on permits for both hunting and camping. Could be quite a paper-trail though because he also said that Max thinks one of the bodies could have been there for up to ten years.”

“And the other?” Kono asked.

Chin flicked through the photos until he found one of the shots that showed the crime scene. “The mudslides unearthed a bone from one individual as well as a flesh-covered arm. Max reckons the arm belongs to a female that died within the last week. From these images though they look to me like they’re laid parallel to each other.”

Kono rested her hip against the table. “So two bodies, deposited at different times, years apart, but laid within a few meters of each other,” she mused after trying to get a perspective of the scale of the photos.

“Looks like it,” Chin nodded. “It’s whether we’re looking at one killer or just someone who had a similar idea.”

“Did Steve mention any theories?” Kono asked, ideas and scenarios starting to run through her head of who and why, but it all boiling down to someone having knowledge of each of the bodies, maybe even a preferred dumping ground.

“Not yet, but he did send this photo.”

Kono stepped closer to the table, leaning over as she tried to make out what was in the image Chin had brought up. “What is it?”

Chin shrugged. “Steve just asked if we could clean it up. He said it was in the bark of one of the trees at the edge of the site and although he couldn’t make anything out, he didn’t think it was natural.”

“A marker?”

“That was the idea. If you’re not going back to a site for ten years then you might just need something to point the way that’s not obvious to anyone walking through the area in the meantime. But Steve also said they were looking at the possibility that the area was cleared through fire so it could just be tool marks from the attempts to put that out.”

“Makes sense,” Kono nodded. “So, how do you want to split the work?”

“Leave the search for Takeru for now until the locals can get back to us, and take missing persons. Start with any females reported missing over the last two weeks but you might as well expand it to cover anyone, male or female, from at least ten years ago as we’ll need a list for the other body anyway. If we’re lucky then our vics are locals.”

Kono doubted their luck would hold so easily with being such a big tourist destination, but a little hope wouldn’t go amiss.

Chin pointed to the scratches on the tree trunk. “I’ll try cleaning this up and see if I can dig out some older satellite photos of the area. I’ve got a call in with the locals on Maui about any crimes or reports that might point to this Takeru or the Yakuza in general, and I have them digging through their systems and intelligence for any reason he might be there. I’m hoping they’ll get back to me before Steve’s on my case again, but I’m beginning to think that’s impossible.”

Kono picked her mug back up, the contents decidedly cooler now. “The impossible is all in a day’s work,” she smiled. Chin just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

*******

The Ranger Station for Kaipapau Reserve was rather more state of the art than the wooden shed Danny had imagined it would be, and the cool bite of the air-conditioning when he pushed open the door was welcome after the trek through the woods. The interior had an office feel to it. Large TV screens were hung on the wall, one displaying weather maps, drifting green patterns heralding what Danny guessed was more rain heading their way. The other flashed silent news stories on CNN, the current headline lambasting the latest budget release.

Most of the walls though held various topographic maps, bright yellow and red lines sweeping sinuous trails, and a rainbow of push-pins marking various spots, the meanings of which meant nothing to Danny. There were posters featuring birds and insects slotted in between the maps, and the high ledge that ran for nearly an entire circuit of the room was packed with stuffed animals in various supposedly natural poses that if Danny bothered to look closer at the posters could probably work out what they were.

Danny was staring at the black glass eyes of the boar mounted by his head when the door to what appeared to be a small kitchen was opened. He judged the warden to be in his early thirties at most, and although his hair was fair, his skin was dark enough to represent the hours spent outside that his job obviously brought.

Danny smiled when the man startled at finding them there. “Hi,” he said. “Sorry to drop in on you, but I’m Detective Danny Williams, this is Commander Steve McGarrett, we’re with Five-0.”

The warden shook himself out of his shock and placed his mug on the desk. “Sorry about that, I didn’t hear you come in. Brodie Woods,” the man introduced himself, holding out a hand.

Danny couldn’t help the smirk at the name, glancing at Steve to find the other man smiling slightly, although he dipped his head a little at Danny’s obvious amusement. Danny briefly shook the offered hand, waiting until Steve did the same before continuing.

“I don’t know if you’re aware that we’re currently excavating a crime scene in the reserve.”

Woods frowned and perched himself on the edge of the desk. “I did see a note left this morning when I came on shift regarding police activity, they didn’t give me any more details other than directing any hunters or anyone else further away from that area. But, if there’s anything you need I’ll do what I can.”

Steve headed to one of the maps, staring at it until he got his bearings and pointed to where Danny presumed the crime scene was. “What can you tell us about this area?”

Woods had followed Steve when he moved towards the map and Danny stepped back. “It’s mostly hunting ground around there, although the forest is pretty dense so not many of the hunters go through there. Most of the game tends to stick to the high ground anyway. In fact…” Woods said before pausing, “that area is still off-limits at the moment. There was some wildfire damage about three years ago around that area and to allow it to recover we put in a half-kilometer wide no-go zone.”

“It’s not near any of the main trails,” Steve pointed out.

Woods shrugged. “It doesn’t get much foot traffic, never did really, but some of the hunters are traditionalists and prefer bow hunting. They tend to stick to those types of areas while the rifle and dog hunters go for more open ground. There definitely won’t be any hikers around there unless they got really turned around, and there are markers up there anyway directing everyone away from the area.”

“Do you have a list of all the permits that have been issued? Camping and hunting,” Danny asked.

“Yeah sure,” Woods said, turning and heading back to his desk.

“Run that list back fifteen years if possible.” Steve added.

Woods frowned a moment before shrugging. “We only have the permits system in electronic format going back eleven years, but if you needed more than that I can have a look at the filing systems. Everyone needs to renew their hunting permit annually, and even then it’s only valid on the dates printed on them. We try to give people the dates they ask for, but then holidays and weekends are popular and we have to limit numbers. They have to sign in and out of the reserve at this office.”

“In that case,” Steve said, “we’ll need all the sign-in sheets for the last two weeks.”

“Um, sure.” Woods hesitated, before he grabbed a ring binder from the front of the desk. Danny got the impression he wasn’t good at multitasking, and certainly not used to Steve’s rapid fire questioning. “Photocopies okay?” He stepped over to the copier once Steve nodded.

“What are your accident stats like?” Danny asked while Woods fed the paper from the ring binder into the copier.

“Pretty good,” Woods said after a pause. “There are the usual trips and falls, a few random dog bites. A couple of years ago we did have one shooting, non-fatal, and it was deemed to be an accident, but for the most part it’s trouble free. The hunters all have to check in and out here at the station, and they can only hunt on the reserve from sun-up to sun-down, but we very rarely get called out to any incidents.”

Woods stepped back to the computer and made a couple of clicks, the printer next to him whirring to life, before he collected the photocopies.

“What about walkers?” Steve asked, taking the photocopied sheets from Woods. “And can I get an e-mailed copy of the permits?” he added, handing over a business card when Woods nodded.

Danny glanced at Woods and his noticeable agitation as he turned back to the computer. He swapped his attention back to Steve when he started to flick through the pages.

“They can come and go at will really,” Woods said, swinging his computer chair round to face them. “We regularly get people hiking over from Hauula or Kahuku Reserves and while we try to make sure they stick to the paths, we can’t cover the whole reserve to enforce that.”

Steve glanced up at Danny before he handed over the sheets of paper, his finger tapped at one of the rows. “And non-permit campers?” he asked, bringing Woods’ attention away from their scrutiny of the paperwork.

Danny tried to work out why the name Steve pointed out was familiar, until he was hit with a sudden image of the 18 year old linebacker they’d let HPD deal with at a drugs arrest a few months ago. He frowned at Steve’s questioning look and shrugged one shoulder. He’d check with Chin, but Danny was pretty sure the kid had been looking at a minimum of two years when they’d handed him over. He scanned the rest of the sheets. There wasn’t anything else that stood out on the camping sign-in sheet other than their runner, but he spotted the three names on the hunting register that had signed in, but not out.

“We’ve always got problems there, but that’s no different to a lot of reserves. We’re not big and camping areas are limited, but it’s mostly the locals that will take advantage of the lack of staff on duty after dark. The tourists tend to prefer shower blocks.”

“What happens to those that don’t sign out at the end of the day?” Danny asked.

“If they’ve got a camping permit they could still be here, I could cross-check them for you. Otherwise if they didn’t sign out then they’d have their permits rescinded and wouldn’t be allowed to reapply for twelve months.”

“Are those people marked on the list you’ve e-mailed?” Steve asked. Danny watched as Steve dug his hands into his pockets, his keys jingling as he fiddled with them, a sure sign that they were almost done. He was surprised Steve had gone this long without breaking off in a 100mph drag race back to the office to see how far Chin and Kono were in chasing after Wo Fat’s potential successor. He flexed his fingers in anticipation of the death grip he’d need on the grab-handle in the truck and wondered if he could convince Steve that it would be better for him to be on the phone and let Danny drive. He doubted it would work. Steve was more anal about the truck than he was about crumbs on his tablecloth.

Woods nodded. “Yeah, they should be.”

Steve glanced over his shoulder at Danny, a silent question to see if there was anything more they needed, not that Danny thought Steve would let him run on too much longer. “Do you have contact details if we need to get back in touch?” Danny asked, erring on the side of self-preservation.

Woods scribbled his numbers on a piece of paper and Danny took it with a nod of thanks, he turned to find Steve halfway to the door, keys clenched in one hand. Danny rolled his eyes at the ‘hurry up’ glare directed at him, but followed nonetheless.

He’d barely got his door shut on the truck before Steve gunned the accelerator, the wheels skidding a little on the gravel. Danny scrabbled to fasten his seatbelt. “I know you want to find this guy, but if you kill us driving like a maniac that’s only going to help his cause.”

Steve turned to glare at him.

Danny held up a placating hand. “Look,” he said, voice more gentle, “I know what these guys did to you okay. Hell, I’d like to see them flayed and the pieces fed to the sharks for what they did to you, but we’ve got to be sensible about this and not play into their hands. I know that all you want to do right now is daub yourself in mud, conceal a small arsenal about your person and go native, but that doesn’t help the family of that girl up there.” He waved a hand over his shoulder as he tried to get Steve to see reason.

Steve turned his head and stared out of the window beside him, Danny immediately turned his attention to the road so at least one of them was looking where the hell they were going.

“Don’t ditch us again Steve,” he warned softly. “Don’t ditch _me_. I don’t want another ‘Dear Danno’ letter on my desk on company letterhead. I don’t want the next letter I open to be a ‘Dear Detective Williams, we regret to inform you…’. Don’t do that to me again.”

When Danny had seen that letter on his desk he’d felt abandoned. And yet that fell quickly away to guilt. Steve had left, and Danny hadn’t seen it coming. Had he really missed what had been going off in Steve’s head? They were supposed to be close, and even without the added intimacy they’d brought to their relationship, Danny had thought their friendship was strong enough for him to notice when something was wrong. So he’d called Steve’s number. And he’d continued to call it.

The more he’d called Steve’s cell number, the longer Steve didn’t pick up, the more Danny had worried. All he’d needed was a word, just one word. Because one word would have meant Steve wasn’t dead. One word meant Steve might still come home to him. When he had finally heard Steve’s voice Danny felt like dropping to his knees. He’d barely let him out of his sight since. Being without Steve for those weeks had taught him just how much he needed him. He still hadn’t told Steve how much that was, wasn’t sure he could put it into words. When he’d realized it, his thoughts had drifted to what Steve felt, whether the fact he could disappear without saying anything was an indication of how much, or how little, he was committed to them as a partnership.

He almost jumped when Steve’s hand settled on his knee. “I won’t,” Steve said, his voice was soft, but Danny heard Steve’s usual determination.

He looked up to see the regret and the promise in Steve’s eyes, and nodded in relief. He cleared his throat. “So what’s next?”

Steve put his hand back on the steering wheel and was silent for so long that Danny didn’t think he’d respond. Emotions flittered across Steve’s face, settling on the laser-eyed focus Danny admired and hated in equal measures.

“We have at least one killer to catch, that of the girl. Anything else we’ll deal with as it comes along.”

Danny hoped his sigh of relief wasn’t audible.

*******

“Nathan Kekoa, 19 years of age, former linebacker at Roosevelt High, released on parole pending appeal three months ago,” Chin said once everyone had gathered round the table, his fingers bringing the image and record on the screen. “We arrested him in the bust of Palea last July.”

“Yeah, and wasn’t he the one running for the fence with half a kilo of coke weighing down his pants?” Danny asked.

Chin nodded, turning back to the monitors. “That would be him. HPD got a two year, four month sentence, but Palea’s sharks sniffed out a reprieve from Palea’s trial that they used to get Kekoa out.”

“Now why would lawyers as expensive as Palea’s waste time getting this kid out of jail?” Danny mused.

Chin watched Danny’s fingertips tap out a rhythm against the edge of the table, the motion mesmerizing within the heavy gray film of tiredness that edged his vision. He breathed deep and pushed it back, there would be time to rest later. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he finally replied.

“Maybe he knew more than they would have liked,” Steve guessed, folding his arms. “At least they didn’t give him a hunting license.”

Kono tapped the screen and moved a copy of the camping permit to the monitor. “He applied for a camping permit for three weeks, which seems pointless considering he’s a local. I’ve gone through the permit system and this is the first year he’s applied for any permit let alone a camping one. I had a look at those people who signed in on the same day as him, both campers and hunters, but they were predominantly tourists. I can’t see any links between the three locals that signed in and Kekoa. They’re from different areas of the island, different ages, didn’t go to the same high school, no employment links.”

“Do we know where he is now?” Steve asked.

“If he’s not in a tent at the campsite, according to his permit application,” Chin brought up the details from the data from Woods, “he’s living in Nanakuli, but that’s not where his parole address is.”

Chin heard Danny mutter under his breath, before he raised his voice. “And so who is supposed to be at those addresses?”

Chin’s fingers flew across the table until two DMV records came up on screen. “His parole address is listed against a Henry Fallow, 42 years old, no record, not even a parking ticket. His permit address is a Lindsey Vaughn.” With a few taps Vaughn’s criminal record appeared on screen. “A few D&D’s, an arrest for DUI, and there’s a record of a uniform being called to a domestic with one Nathan Kekoa just before we busted him.”

“Guess we go look for him there first,” Danny muttered. “What about these three people that didn’t sign out last week?”

Kono tapped on the screen until the files she wanted opened up. “Shawn and Sally Gregory, and Gordon Lyndon. Lyndon’s a local, and seems to make a habit of forgetting to sign out, he’s had his license rescinded three times before. He just keeps signing up again the following year. Maybe he’s killing more than the permitted hunting limits, maybe he’s just forgetful.”

“Maybe he’s a murderer,” Danny said, shrugging when Steve frowned at him. “What? Okay, never mind, maybe you’re right and he just forgets that he’s carrying a hunter’s rifle and there’s something he should do before he goes home and barbecue’s himself a boar burger. But go on, what about the other two?”

Chin shook his head at Danny’s testiness, figuring his next job was to go get food and industrial strength coffee from the shop on the corner. He put that on hold when Kono picked up again.

“Husband and wife, from San Antonio, and appear to be on the island for vacation. Also hunting on the day Kekoa signed in. They’d arranged a three day permit for hunting Kaipapau and Ewa. Kaipapau was Sunday and Monday. They signed in for nine hours on Sunday, and then they signed in again at 7:15am Monday. As you saw, they didn’t sign out. I rang the hunter’s station at Ewa and there’s no record of them signing in on Tuesday.”

There was a moment of silence around the table, as they all came to the same conclusion that the body in the woods might be that of Sally Gregory. “Where are they staying?” Steve asked softly.

“They had the Paradise Bay at Kaneohe on the permit. I called the front desk and they’ve confirmed the reservation and that the Gregorys are due to check out tomorrow. There’s a note on the system to say the maid service hasn’t been in since Friday due to the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door, but then they only clean the rooms twice during a week long stay so that could have been in place for a few days before. They hadn’t been notified of any itinerary or planned overnight stays elsewhere. The rental car they logged at check-in isn’t in the lot. I also had a look at the Forestry records to see if they’ve had a hunting permit before, and they did. Seven years ago,” she added after a sight pause. Chin’s gaze flicked to the image of the partially uncovered skeleton.

“Okay,” Danny said with a wave of his hand. “Not that I like jumping to conclusions before we have at least some significant piece of evidence to work with, but what’s their background?”

Kono flicked through some more files, bringing up the results of the background checks, the last two files opening on the DMV images. Chin’s gaze flicked from one to the other. Both white, brunette, middle-aged. Sally’s image seemingly frozen in time, a thick layer of make-up painting her face and eyes beyond what one would expect to see outside of the dark recesses of a nightclub. Chin got the impression she was clutching to her better years that had long since faded away. Shawn, in contrast, had little of the tired facade that haunted Sally’s features, the hint of a friendly smile shaved off the years making him seem much younger than his wife.

He jumped as Steve’s cell rang, the sound shrill in the open space of the office, and listened in to Steve’s half of the conversation that he must have been having with Max. The others were just as quiet, until Steve signed off. Danny crossed his arms and leant back against the table, uncharacteristically still until Steve’s cell beeped.

Steve laid his cell on the table, letting the tech pull the images off that Max had no doubt just sent him. He scrolled until he found an image that held a close up of the woman’s face before moving it to the screen to sit next to Sally Gregory’s license.

“I guess we have a match,” Chin said quietly.

Steve huffed out a breath. “Max says COD is likely to be blunt force trauma to the back of the head and the time of death fits with Monday. They’re still working on the skeleton. There’s a lot of post-mortem displacement so they think they’ll get it out before they lose the light, but Max believes it’s male and seven years is within his estimates. He’s heading back to the office with Gregory. There were signs of burnt vegetation under Gregory’s body which would fit in with what Woods said about the area. I don’t think it’s worth us going up there now so we’ll let the CSI’s deal with the scene. We’ll do better heading out to Kaneohe. We still have Shawn Gregory to find.”

Steve clicked a few more buttons on the table, transferring the files before pocketing his cell. “Kono, I need a full background check on the Gregorys - financials, associates, whatever you can find. Get in touch with the locals in San Antonio, we’ll need a next of kin, hopefully we might get an itinerary for their trip and maybe some information on why they’re here, or were here seven years ago. Also find out who else had a permit for those dates seven years ago and concentrate on missing persons around that time.”

Steve waited for her to acknowledge. “We’re heading out to the hotel, Chin, you’re with us, I want you to comb through the room while we go after Kekoa.” Steve paused long enough for Chin to nod before he turned back to Kono. “Let HPD know and get an APB out on Gregory and their rental. And pull the recent transactions on both their cards, I want to know where they’ve been.”

“Got it boss,” Kono said. Chin watched her as she turned back to her office, before heading to his own desk to get his gear. That trip for coffee and food would have to wait.

*******

Steve checked over his shoulder to see if Chin and Danny were ready. At their nods he slid the hotel access card the clerk had given them into the slot, waiting for the light to go green. His fingers flexed around the door handle before easing it down. He pushed the door softly, letting it swing outward under its own momentum. Steve paused and listened for any movement within the suite, but all he could hear was the buzz of the a/c.

“Anything?” Danny asked, his voice a whisper against Steve’s ear. He held back a shiver and shook his head tightly.

“Mr Gregory?” Steve called. His voice was met with silence.

Steve edged around the door, training his gun wherever his eyes scanned, looking for threats. He heard Chin and Danny following, listening to them call out as they cleared the rooms. Steve glanced around the living area, nothing seemed disturbed, the glass coffee table had a toppled over pile of pamphlets and a couple of used coffee mugs, but nothing out of place. He was just heading towards the kitchenette when he heard Chin call out.

Steve kept his gun in his hand as he moved to the bathroom, Danny was shaking his head as he exited the small room to let Steve into the confined space. Chin was bending over the sink, the reason for Danny’s shake of the head was the thin line of reddish-brown that marked an old water line in the basin, one that appeared to be dried blood.

“Guess we add hospitals to that APB,” Chin said.

“We need to find the car, and see if we can work out whose blood that is,” Steve pointed out. “Can you ask reception about their cameras?” Chin tilted his head in acknowledgement.

“Steve.” Danny’s voice drifted through from the bedroom.

“Call it in,” Steve said to Chin, releasing a brief sigh before standing up to see what Danny had found.

“What have you got?” he asked when he followed the noise into one of the bedrooms, eying Danny who was bent down, digging in the bottom of one of the closets. Two suitcases were on the bed, the contents messed up, there was also a gun case.

Danny waved a hand at the rifle on the bed. “That looks like a Remington Rimfire, which I think was on the paperwork from the reserve. The receipt from the gun shop is tucked into the lid of the case, listing that and one other as loaners.”

Steve picked up the paperwork, noting the amount of ammo that was bought with the weapons. “Didn’t those sign-in sheets count ammo in and out at the reserve?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Danny replied. “I can get Kono to check. There’s nothing in here to fit that, however there is this.” As Danny stood, Steve could see the matching case he had in his hands. “It’s too light to have anything in it.” Danny said as he placed the case on the bed. He popped the clasps and let the lid fall open showing a similar interior to the other case, the moldings empty.

Using his gloved hand Steve turned back to the Remington and picked it up, squinting down the barrel before sniffing at it. “Doesn’t seem like it’s been fired.”

Danny leaned against Steve’s side as he inspected the rim of the barrel as Steve had just done. The heat rolled off his skin bleeding through his shirt, warming Steve’s arm. Steve let himself have a brief moment to draw strength from Danny’s solid frame before reluctantly pulling back to place the rifle back inside the case.

“So,” Danny started. “We have a missing husband, a missing shotgun and ammo, a dead wife, and a drug dealer on parole who decided to ignore his conditions to maybe sleep in a forest, and who may or may not have some connections to the Gregorys. I smell something fishy.”

Steve shrugged, and rubbed at the stiffness in his neck. “Maybe we’ll find that out when we hear back from the locals in San Antonio. And when we talk to Kekoa.”

Danny glanced around him. “I take it he’s our next stop?” he asked with a sigh.

“Uniforms are on their way. CSIs are heading over too,” Chin announced as he came into the bedroom. “And the hotel has cameras at reception and the parking lot to the front entrance and that’s it. Nothing in the corridors, but they’re currently sorting us out a copy of everything they have during the Gregorys stay so we might get lucky.”

Steve sighed and ran a hand over his face, partly in frustration, mostly due to the sudden onset of exhaustion that followed the crash of the adrenaline rush. He glanced at his watch and it took him a moment to realize how much time had been lost in the day already and they were no closer to identifying the Yakuza threat than when Denning called. “I’ll go grab some food from downstairs while we wait on the uniforms. Then we’ll go see what Kekoa has to say for himself.”

Chin’s nod looked grateful and Steve felt a stab of guilt at how hard he’d been pushing. He needed this done so he could put all he had into finding Takeru and whatever had brought him to Hawaii. “You good with a sandwich? Coffee?”

“Whatever looks good,” Chin said. “I’ll wait here.”

Steve nodded and headed out of the suite, Danny close on his heels. He jumped when Danny’s hand gripped his elbow, and cursed himself for letting his thoughts take his attention. “You okay, babe?”

His voice was soft and Steve dipped his head once as he entered the elevator. As the doors shut, Danny stepped closer, his hip brushing against Steve’s limp fingers. Steve clenched his fingers tight, digging fingernails into his palm before he forced himself to relax. He unfurled his fingers and ran his hand up and down Danny’s side, the light touch a comfort to himself more than anything he thought he could give back to Danny. “I’m fine. It’s just…” he paused, his hand clutching at Danny’s shirt, not sure he could say just what it was bothering him, about the case, about Denning, and then the Yakuza. There was nothing solid, nothing he could put into words except a feeling, an itch, that something wasn’t right.

“I know, okay,” Danny said, his hand was still gripping Steve’s elbow, and he squeezed. Steve wasn’t sure Danny got it, but Danny had that inherent need to help and Steve couldn’t fault him for that. “Just don’t let it drag you under. We need you on your A-game, don’t go running off on your own agenda. We’re in this together, we’re a team, okay?”

Steve nodded. He knew what Danny wanted, he did, it was just easier when he only had to worry about himself. His gaze drifted to the floor counters, the elevator jostling them when it hit the ground floor. He reluctantly put some distance between him and Danny as the door started to open. “I hear you.”

Danny stared at him a long moment before he nodded. “There’s always a first time.” His words were a tease but he squeezed Steve’s elbow one last time before letting him go and following him out of the elevator.

*******

Danny stepped out into the hallway, the crush of people in the suite and the lack of things for him to do at that moment meant he was eager for some space. He glanced down the corridor to where Steve was on his cell, pacing as much as he could manage with his long legs and the narrow space. He looked tired and frustrated. Danny had seen Steve run around the island for three days straight and not look so worn out, but then that had just been a bad case, not a bad case with a side-helping of the Yakuza.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and side-stepped out of the way as someone tapped him on the shoulder from the room and edged past him. Somehow he was going to have to get Steve to let up, to go home and put his head down. Or at the very least crash on the couch in his office; although Danny wasn’t letting Steve know that was an option, he was holding that one back as an offer of a compromise. There was just something bugging Steve more than usual about this one that Danny couldn’t yet understand. He didn’t think it was the case specifically, but then he hadn’t really had the chance to talk to Steve properly, or talk to him enough that Steve finally let him in on whatever was bugging him in order to get Danny to shut up.

He glanced up as Steve ended his call, Danny managed a couple of steps before it started ringing again, and Steve answered it just as he noticed Danny waiting for him. Danny sighed, and leaned back against the wall. He kept his gaze on Steve, so he noticed when the somewhat defeated posture straightened, the tiredness etched in his face melting away to be replaced by that laser focus. Danny startled a little as Chin came to stand beside him, a USB drive in his hand.

“Got the footage from the cameras. I’ll have to go through it for familiar faces, but we’ve got both the Gregorys leaving Monday morning. The car turns back in Monday evening with only the husband, before he takes off out of the parking lot a half hour later. There’s nothing to say he’s been back since. But I did notice that an SUV followed him in and out of the lot in the evening, couldn’t get a plate though.”

“Is that the camera footage?” Steve asked, startling Danny with his sudden appearance. He made a mental note to place an order for a bell, maybe with a collar and leash so he could keep him from running off.

“Yeah,” Chin said. “They both left here on Monday morning about the time we’d expect them to make the reserve when they signed in. Gregory comes back on his own Monday night although he does have a shadow in the form of an SUV. He leaves again thirty minutes later.”

“Good. We need to go through that tape, run it against who we know, or suspect, are part of Palea’s operations. Kono says HPD pulled over the rental an hour ago. The driver was someone we had down as a possible runner for Palea but we never got any footage on him. There’s no sign of Shawn Gregory, but there was what looks like the missing rifle under the carpet in the trunk, blood on the butt. See if you can grab a couple of samples from the blood from the bathroom, get one to Fong and one to Max, I’ve already asked Kono to make sure HPD sends the rifle over as a priority. Then I need you to pick up Kono and scrub that rental car from nose to tail, I want to know where Gregory is, or at least has been.”

“I take it we’re going after Kekoa?” Danny asked once Steve paused.

“Yeah,” Steve acknowledged before turning back to Chin. “I want the driver HPD picked up back in interrogation when we get back. Can you sort that too?”

Chin nodded. “You got it.”

Danny smiled at Chin’s enthusiasm, he himself was feeling the shot of adrenaline from anticipation waking him up a little. As soon as Chin moved back into the suite, Steve was in motion and Danny picked up his pace to catch up to Steve’s long strides. From the pull of the shirt across Steve’s back, Danny could see the weight of exhaustion slipping from his shoulders.

They were nearly at Kekoa’s girlfriend’s address when Steve’s cell rang again. He glanced at the screen before thumbing the call onto speaker. “Max, what have you got?”

“Ah, Commander. I wanted to confirm that Sally Gregory did indeed die of a single blow to the back of her skull. The indentations are consistent with the weapon that was located in the trunk of the rental vehicle. I am certain that analysis of the blood taken from the weapon will confirm my suspicions.”

Steve glanced at Danny before turning his attention back to the road. “Was there anything from the clothing?”

“The expected identification, a wallet containing 74 dollars and some loose change. There were fourteen unspent bullets in the pocket of her jacket, and no evidence of gunshot residue on her skin or clothes, however based on how quickly GSR dissipates that should not be conclusive evidence.”

“Thanks Max, if there’s anything else, let us know,” Danny finished.

“Of course gentlemen.”

Steve closed off the call and dropped his cell on the dash of the truck. “How much ammo did they buy?”

Danny squinted as he tried to remember what was on the paperwork. “There were two boxes of 100 bullets, I think, .22 caliber. Did Kono say if there was any ammo in the rental?”

Steve shook his head. “Not that she mentioned, but then maybe they’ll find it when they get to the impound yard.”

Danny glanced out of the window, noting how close they were to their destination. He pulled his gun from the holster and checked the magazine even knowing it was still fully loaded from earlier. “How do you want to play this?” he asked, as he watched Steve mirror his movements with his own gun while steering the truck with the heel of one hand as he did it.

“Until we know what the hell is going on between Gregory and Palea we need to treat Kekoa as a murder suspect. He’s already shown that he’s a runner so one of us needs to take the back. The girlfriend could be on site, and if she is then she probably won’t take too kindly to us kicking her door in but she’ll need questioning about Kekoa’s movements so we need her too.”

“I take it you want the back?” Danny asked knowingly. If there was the likelihood of a chase then he knew Steve would be only too willing to run someone down.

Steve tilted his head and smirked. “Just watch for girlfriends who bite and any wayward bullets.”

“I’ll let you off the hook for that one because you apologized like the human being you have demonstrated you occasionally can be,” Danny warned with the wave of a finger, “the acceptance of that apology is still pending, however.”

“Danno, it’s been pending since the day I met you.” Steve’s voice was practically a whine, and Danny had to force down his grin.

“You got me shot the first day I met you,” Danny pointed out.

“And I’ve been making up for it ever since.” This time Steve did whine. “Are you going to forgive me?”

Danny met Steve’s puppy dog eyes without a flinch. There were times when Steve’s pleading had Danny caving within seconds, unable to resist, but Danny could see the hint of something unrepentant beneath Steve’s expression, a promise Danny wouldn’t mind seeing him acting out. Before he could dare Steve to make him forgive him, Steve slowed the truck to a stop, and Danny swung his gaze to the rundown single storey building where they hoped Kekoa was hiding out.

“The decision on that is pending too,” Danny commented before reaching into the back to grab their vests, handing Steve his before struggling into his own in the limited space of the truck's cab. “Ready?” he asked.

Instead of replying Steve climbed out the truck, pausing only a second to make sure Danny was following before he jogged across the street. Danny waited until Steve had quietly navigated around the junk piled at the side of the house before he himself took the steps to the front door. His fingers flexed around the butt of his gun and he took a deep breath before he pounded on the door with his fist. He waited a beat for any sound within the house.

There was only silence. “Kekoa? 5-0, open up.”

Danny swore he heard something, but when he strained to locate the noise everything was quiet. He turned the door handle on a chance and the lock slid open. He kicked the door the rest of the way, and as he ducked round the entrance and into the house a flash of something in the corner of his eye had him ducking. Something big and heavy, and made of glass, smashed against the wall where his head had been a moment earlier and his arms came up to shield his face as glass rained down on him. He ignored the sting on the back of his hand made by a piece of glass and brought his gun up scanning for the threat.

Lindsey Vaughn suddenly jumped up from behind a kitchen counter, crockery in her hand. Danny leveled his gun at her. “Put it down, now!”

Vaughn looked like she was going to do just the opposite, but there was a clatter from the back of the house and the sound of a gunshot. Vaughn attempted to make use of Danny’s distraction by running towards the back. 

“Stay there!” Danny yelled, his fear for Steve and what might be happening making his voice sharp and demanding.

Vaughn skittered to a stop on the tiled floor and raised her hands. Danny kept his gun on her as he fished his cuffs from his belt. Glancing around the room for a suitably sturdy structure to cuff Vaughn to he settled on the rail that ran around the edge of the breakfast bar. He slid one of the cuffs on tugging Vaughn back towards the kitchenette. He fed the cuffs through the rail and secured her other hand. “Stay.”

He ignored the curses and remarks about his parentage, and moved to the back of the house. The window in the bedroom was wide open and Danny moved over to it cautiously. He relaxed, breathing out an audible sigh of relief when he saw Steve kneeling on who he presumed to be a struggling Kekoa as he secured the cuffs behind his back.

“Need a hand?” he called.

Steve looked up sharply at his voice, the furious scowl on his face melting into a grin as he spotted Danny. Danny though frowned at the trickle of blood running down Steve’s face from his hairline. “Nah, I’m good,” he called. He shifted off Kekoa’s back and hauled the man to his feet. Kekoa had lost none of his bulk since they’d last seen him, if anything he looked bigger.

“I’ll call for a bus,” Danny said. Danny holstered his gun and pulled out his cell. A minute later he was stepping out of the front door just as Steve dragged Kekoa around the side of the house, the clangs of failing junk echoing behind him. Danny waited until Steve had Kekoa sitting on the porch steps before he moved to Steve’s side. Steve pulled a revolver from the back waistband of his cargos and held it out to Danny.

“I don’t remember him packing heat last time,” Danny muttered as he inspected the Taurus.

“Still a runner though,” Steve shrugged, leaning against the side of the house.

Danny glanced over his shoulder at Kekoa who was now in a screaming match with his good lady, and he used their suspects’ distraction to lay a gentle finger against the line of blood on the side of Steve’s face. It looked like it had stopped bleeding, thankfully. Steve flinched back a little, and Danny sighed.

“So how’d that happen?” he asked holding up his blood-smeared finger.

Steve shrugged. “I took him down when he fired off a shot. The backyard is just as cluttered as the side. It’s nothing, just a scrape.”

Danny pulled Steve’s head down until he could see the shallowly scuffed skin at Steve’s hairline, convincing himself that Steve spoke the truth. Steve submitted himself to Danny’s scrutiny with a lopsided smile, and when Danny met his eyes he smiled wider. Danny couldn’t stop the twitch at the corners of his mouth and he returned Steve’s grin. He propped himself against the wall at Steve’s side, the adrenaline ebbing away and leaving him feeling the lost hours. They stood there in silence, or at least they were silent; Kekoa and Vaughn barely took time to breathe as they continued to scream at each other.

By the time the bus came to pick up their two charges Danny had been ready to shoot them, consequences be damned. When they got back to the office Danny knew the headache he thought Kekoa’s mouth had initiated wasn’t going to dissipate without chemical help. He slipped into his office and grabbed a couple of Tylenol from his top drawer, washing them down with a mouthful of cold coffee.

Steve stuck his head around his door as Danny closed his drawer. “Headache?” he asked, after having taken a moment to study him.

Danny shrugged. “I could do with a few hours sleep too, but I guess that will have to wait.”

Steve grimaced, an unspoken apology. “HPD are still sitting on Derago, the driver of the rental. Apparently he needed checking out at the hospital. He didn’t exactly stop when requested to do so and ran the car into the side of a 7-11.”

“Convenient,” Danny deadpanned. Steve huffed out a breath, a low ghost of a laugh. “Kekoa then?” he sighed.

Steve nodded, but Danny could read the apology in the dip of his head.

*******

Kono listened to the comments from the Detective in San Antonio as she clicked through the file that had just landed in her inbox. The Gregorys had apparently made a habit of going to Hawaii for business and vacation with several trips a year until seven years ago when they'd stopped making the trips. Sally Gregory’s sister had commented that this trip had been the first in all that time. No firm itinerary had been left with the family, just the contact details of the Paradise Bay, although the sister had thought the trip was a mixture of business and pleasure. Neither of the Gregorys had been in contact with anyone in the family since they left.

Kono set the traces on the Gregorys cell phones running as soon as she located the information in the file, and typed up the request for call records on both numbers while Detective Keller continued her report. The Gregorys business was importation; everything from Italian olive oil to Chinese sculpture. The company had been doing well, the turnover rocketing about seven years ago when they won a contract with a shipping company based in Maui. The Detective could add little to what was in the file. The only record the Gregorys had was a single speeding ticket between them, and that from nine years ago.

Kono wrapped the call up as Steve and Danny walked back in from Interrogation, even through the glass walls she could tell it hadn’t gone as well as expected. She saved the San Antonio Police file to the server, and slipped from behind her desk, heading to the table.

“Hey,” she greeted, voice soft, as Steve and Danny turned as one. “How’d it go?”

Danny sighed loudly and waved his hand. “Derago’s still at Queens, but he’s not likely to be getting anywhere fast on a broken leg. We’re hoping he’ll be out in a couple of hours. Kekoa’s keeping quiet. Won’t utter a word on Palea, nothing on what he’s been doing, and nothing on why he decided to get a camping permit. He didn’t even flinch when we told him we’d found his prints on the gun in the rental car. Whoever he’s working for now has toughened him up, or got him so scared not even Rambo here can frighten him.”

Steve scowled at Danny’s dig but didn’t comment on it. “What do you have?”

“Still nothing from Max on the other body, and as you know there’s nothing in the car that tells us where Shawn Gregory is. The sat nav only had local sites, the hotel, that kind of thing in the history. Prints on the wheel were Derago and four others, one set belongs to Sally Gregory. From the prints taken from the hotel room one was a match to the car, and seeing as though we know Shawn Gregory has been driving we’re presuming they’re his. There was also a trace of blood on the wheel which matches that from the hotel room and to Sally Gregory. No tracker on the rental unfortunately, and no matches on the other two prints but it’s likely to be at least one person at the rental company, maybe both.”

Kono paused as Chin walked in, hoping her face wasn’t showing how desperate she was for a lead. Chin held up the tray of coffee cups, and the markings on the carrier he was holding indicated Chinese take-out. “Did I miss anything?”

Kono shook her head. “Just running through what we’ve got.”

“Which, as it turns out, is a whole lot of nothing,” Danny muttered as he leaned his elbows on the table and propped his chin in his hands.

“Well,” Chin said as he placed a cup by Danny along with a carton of food, “I finally got the intel from Maui PD on the Yakuza operations.”

“Anything useful?” Steve’s head shot up at Chin’s comment.

Chin paused as he handed Steve coffee and food before heading back to the table where Kono was already tucking into her Kung Pao chicken.

“I just got it while I was out, so I skimmed it. There are lists of suspects they’ve arrested and attributed to the Yakuza, mostly low level thugs and pushers, but someone has to be giving them their orders, and we have a list of potential higher-ups. I’ve also got a list of companies suspected of having Yakuza links. There are some big companies on that list.”

“Any of them Alua Freight?” Kono asked, not expecting a positive response.

“Actually, yes,” Chin said after a moment of checking the files he’d called up on the table. “Why do you ask?”

Kono paused, before quickly setting her carton of food down and taking over from Chin, bringing up the information Keller had sent over. “I just got this from San Antonio,” she said, pushing the files to the monitors. “The Gregorys were pretty regular visitors to the islands until seven years ago. This was their first trip in all that time. The lull coincided with a big business deal with Alua Freight. Their company turnover rocketed after the deal was signed, but the underlying profit margins were still quite low.”

The financial report she put on the screen made for interesting viewing. “Sally’s sister said this trip was a mix of business and pleasure. What if Takeru and the Gregorys are here for the same thing?” she said.

“God I hate coincidences,” Danny groaned.

“Who’s linked to this freight company?” Steve asked, ignoring Danny’s comment.

“They’re all local,” Chin said, bringing up the list of execs for the company. “Either Oahu or Maui natives, Hawaiian or white backgrounds, none with Japanese connections that I can see. The Yakuza link is tentative at best, the information came from an informant.”

“Do we know which one?” Danny asked.

“I can ask,” Chin shrugged. “But then you know how protective cops are over their snitches.”

Steve sighed and scrubbed at his eyes. Kono wondered if he felt as tired as he looked. “Do we know if Gregory has skipped the Island, maybe Maui?”

“Nothing has hit against the APBs we have out for him with the airport and airlines. Of course if he is linked to the Yakuza then that doesn’t cover private jets or boats.”

“Better extend the APB on Shawn Gregory to Maui,” Steve said, scratching at the back of his head. “I don’t want to jump ahead and fly out there just yet, but get MPD to put out surveillance on all the offices and the CEOs of Alua Freight. Make sure they have a photo of Shawn Gregory to go with Takeru’s. What else did you get from San Antonio?”

Kono turned back to the files. “They’re pretty clean, boss. We have both their cell numbers, I’ve applied for the call history and a log of the cell towers to track their movement, and the trace should be back now…” she said, tapping until the results came on screen. “Both switched off,” she sighed. “Last cell location registered was in the vicinity of the hotel.”

“If I was Gregory I’d have picked up a burner,” Steve said, “and we’re not likely to find out what or where anytime soon”.

“What I want to know,” Danny said, “is if Gregory is linked to the Yakuza why is all the evidence linking him to Palea?”

“We need to take a closer look at Palea and what his boys might have been doing while he’s been inside,” Steve sighed.

They fell into silence, and Kono wondered just what the hell Steve would do next. They had some leads to play with now, but it was going to take time and Kono wasn’t sure she could go another hour without taking a break and getting some sleep. It seemed Chin thought the same.

“What do you want to do, Steve?” he asked softly.

Steve looked at them both, his expression unreadable as his gaze flicked between them before finally turning to Danny. Kono had no idea what silent conversation they had, she was sure neither of them had changed their features enough to suggest anything at all, but Steve sighed as though he’d just lost his battle with Danny. “Pass your searches and information off to HPD and MPD. They can do as much as we can anyway so we might as well make use of them. Go home and get some rest. Hopefully someone will let us know if anything’s going off. We’ll let Derago sweat a bit and pick it up in the morning.”

Kono sighed in relief and smiled as she nodded. “Thanks boss.” She paused long enough to close off the documents she’d brought up on the table before picking up what was left of her food and coffee heading to her office to send everything she needed to the respective contacts at HPD and Maui. She finished off the food as she talked to HPD. Closing off the call and sending on the required files, she powered everything down, turned out the lights and waited for Chin to join her. She glanced towards Steve’s office where he’d obviously retreated. Danny was with him, and she hoped he was going to be able to convince Steve to take the break himself that he’d given them.

“You ready?” Chin asked, as he stopped at her side.

“More than,” she said with a wry smile.

Chin smiled ruefully and shook his head. “I think Malia’s beginning to forget what I look like.”

“You have wedding photos,” she teased as she headed out, allowing one last glance over her shoulder at Steve’s office. _Go home_ she sent silently.

*******

Danny watched Chin and Kono head back to their respective offices, the flurry of activity belying the tiredness, he turned back to find Steve already in his office, his cell back to his ear. Danny sighed deeply before following him, gearing himself up for whatever battle he would need to wage in order to get Steve to go home with him.

He paused at Steve’s open door until he was waved in, Danny catching the tail-end of what sounded like an update to the Governor. As he drained his coffee he took the opportunity to really look Steve over, to see where the cracks were starting to show. He’d still put money on Steve to come out on top no matter who he went up against, but Danny could read the tension in the clench of his jaw and the long hours in the dark circles under his eyes. His pacing matched the clipped rhythm of his words as his long strides carried him quickly from one side of his office to the other, and back again.

Danny also knew how frustrated Steve was with the case, and the timing of the Yakuza’s move back onto the islands made everything more strained. As a team they could handle it, they’d covered cases this messy before, but Steve was trying to take the whole case and the Yakuza threat solely on his own shoulders, and they were dipping under the weight.

When Steve finally ended the call he stopped pacing and sat on the edge of his desk. He sat in silence, arms folded across his chest, seemingly waiting for whatever assessment he thought Danny was making. Danny raised his eyes and met Steve’s gaze until Steve’s jaw clenched.

“Everything okay with the Governor?” Danny finally asked, breaking the silence.

Steve sighed softly and averted his eyes, and Danny suddenly wondered if that was where some of Steve’s issues lay. The orders to look for Takeru had come from Denning.

“Yeah,” Steve finally said.

Danny rubbed at his eyes in frustration before letting his hands drop. He edged closer to Steve and rested a hand against his arm. “Will you please tell me what’s eating at you?”

Steve’s eyes wandered out to the bullpen, and Danny turned too, watching as Chin and Kono left. Steve didn’t turn back, caught up in whatever thoughts were running through his head. Danny shook his head at the silence and rubbed his hand against Steve’s skin before letting his touch fall away. He expected the silence to continue so was surprised when Steve spoke.

“Denning’s given us back full immunity and means to track down Takeru,” he said, voice hushed.

Danny looked up in surprise. He knew they’d pushed their luck with the Russian Embassy, that Denning had only backed them up with Chin because the evidence was presented to him in time. Danny suspected that Steve had been dragged through the wringer in the aftermath, not that he’d said anything, no matter how many times Danny had asked.

“He say why?”

Steve shook his head. “When he first told me about Takeru’s arrival he gave me full means straight off. I just can’t shake the feeling that he knows more than he’s letting on, that we’re missing something important because Denning’s not saying something. Especially when you consider how light the intelligence was.”

“You’re also thinking about Jameson and Wo Fat too.” Danny didn’t need to phrase it as a question. He was thinking the same thing. Steve had trusted too many people that had stabbed him in the back and now Danny saw the wariness edging all of his interactions.

“Yeah,” Steve breathed out, ducking his head. 

“You got anything concrete?” Danny asked.

Steve shook his head. “Last thing I can do at the moment is put observations on the Governor, even if I’ve thought about it and called it ‘security’. What’s bothering me is that there’s only very limited information from the Japanese. If this guy’s as big a threat as Denning believes then why don’t they have a thicker folder on him?”

“You tried going down other routes? Cath maybe?”

Steve shook his head. “I don’t want to drag Catherine into this, not with the Yakuza. I’ve got some feelers out and I’ve talked to one of my old COs in the SEALS, he'll come back to me if there is anything to find.”

Danny ran his fingertips back and forth across the top of the desk by Steve’s thigh, stopping only when Steve caught his fingers in his grip. “Can we go home?” Danny asked, voice hushed.

Steve sighed, and Danny thought he’d let go of his hand, go on the defensive and find an excuse amid the potential leads they had to follow up. So when Steve tightened his grip before standing, Danny was ready with the first of many prepared points of persuasion.

“Yeah, we can go home.”

“I thought you’d say that… wait, what?” The hand Danny had started to point in Steve’s direction stopped abruptly.

Steve smiled, the usual glint he got in his eye when pulling one over on Danny was faded, dulled by the weight on his shoulders but it was still there. Steve rested his hands on his hips. “If I stay here, then you’ll only stay too. One of us needs to be fresh should we need to act.”

“Soooo,” Danny frowned, “let me get this straight, you’re agreeing to go home, right?” Steve nodded. “What about actually detaching your cell from your ear and sleeping?” Steve shrugged. “Right, well that I can work on.”

“Uhuh,” Steve muttered. “You done? Can we go now?”

“Can we…? You know what babe, yes I am done, we can go. Go!” he added when Steve didn’t move. Danny smiled at Steve’s chuckle as Danny shoved him towards the door, and bit back his sigh of relief as he palmed off the lights.

They walked in silence to the truck, their shoulders brushing every other step. Danny sank into the passenger seat in relief tipping the back down a little and settling in. He let his eyes close, feeling the headache roar to life again now he had nothing to fight. He was pretty sure that he had a blister on the top of his little toe from the hike earlier that morning, and was laying good odds that he smelled like he’d been running around the woods too. He wondered what it would take to get Steve to join him in the shower when they got home, but he doubted he’d be awake enough for much to happen beyond mutual back scrubbing.

He squinted an eye open when Steve muttered something about damn tourists, and watched as he put the truck into park and jumped out. They were only in the exit to the parking lot, but a sedan was blocking the way, the female driver wrestling with a map. Steve talked to the woman for a moment before his hands started to gesture what was likely a set of directions. The car drove off as Steve settled back into the driver’s seat, but when he didn’t move off straightaway Danny turned to him. The puzzled look on Steve’s face made him frown.

“You okay?”

Steve shook himself and started to move off. “Yeah, just something niggling.”

“About the driver?” Danny asked, his gaze turning in the direction of where the sedan had gone, but the taillights had long since disappeared.

Steve shrugged and shook his head. “Don’t know,” he admitted before shaking off whatever was bothering him and gunned the gas with his usual heavy foot.

It felt like a lifetime before Steve was pulling the truck into the driveway, and Danny forced himself to move, shuffling through the front door that Steve held open with his foot as he entered the alarm code. Danny cast a weary glance at the kitchen, debating whether he needed more coffee for the fight he’d need to have with Steve to get him to let go. Thoughts of a shower won out, and he turned up the stairs heading toward their bedroom, not even bothering with the light, as he shed clothes haphazardly on the way to the bathroom.

The bathroom light flickered on and Danny started the shower, letting the water warm up first. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror, his usually well-groomed appearance showing the wear and tear of a difficult day. The mirror started to fog as the steam curled from the shower, slowing dulling the lines until his reflection was more ghostly, and he tore his eyes away and climbed under the spray.

The water was almost too hot, but the heat soothed away lingering aches in his muscles. The headache pulled at his eye-sockets, and with a sigh he dipped his head, letting the water run down his neck, drenching his hair. There was a cool draft of warning moments before Steve’s arms wrapped round him from behind. Danny shivered with the coolness spreading through him from where Steve’s chilled skin met his, but he lay a hand against Steve’s arm to stop him from pulling back.

Steve pressed his nose to the back of Danny’s ear and sighed, a huff of breath that warmed Danny back up again. “I know it’s not just my limits I’m pushing anymore,” Steve said softly, “and I’m trying to remember that. I’m sorry.”

“C’mere babe,” Danny muttered, fighting to turn around in Steve’s embrace until the water pounded his back and he could pull Steve’s face to his until their foreheads touched. Water clung to Steve’s eyelashes, and Danny felt his heart clench at the sight. 

“That you’re trying is all I can ask for,” he said. “Don’t apologize for being you, for having this part of you that makes you so good at what you do. We do our best to keep up, but you don’t ask for more than we’re willing to give you.”

Steve eyes drifted shut as he exhaled deeply. He clung to Danny, tightening his arms, before he suddenly pulled back. He dropped a brief kiss to Danny’s lips before he reached past Danny for the shower gel. Danny knew Steve’s moment of weakness had passed and so he let Steve run his hands over his skin, washing away dirt and sweat and lingering stress. These little intimacies came so easy for Danny he wondered why they’d waited so long to expand on their friendship.

When Steve held out the bottle of gel Danny was only too willing to return the favor. He dug the heels of his hands into the tense muscles of Steve’s back, spreading the soap suds in long sweeps of his hand until the slope of Steve’s shoulders dipped and he felt more relaxed under Danny’s touch. He grabbed Steve’s hand and pulled him under the spray, letting the suds rinse away, before he turned off the shower.

Danny grabbed the towel Steve held out to him, and with economical swipes of the soft cotton dried himself off. The towel slipped from his fingers to land on the floor and Danny heard a tut from Steve as he headed towards the bed. He sighed in pleasure as he slipped under the sheets, the high-thread cotton smooth against his shower-warmed skin. His head sunk into the pillow and his eyes drifted shut.

He cracked an eye open when he felt the other side of the bed dip, and he didn’t even attempt to hide his surprise when Steve settled under the covers. “You’re really calling it a day?”

“Technically I’m calling an end to two days,” Steve smiled wryly.

Danny rolled his eyes. He reached out and tugged until Steve took the hint and turned onto his back, Danny shuffling closer until he could tuck his head against Steve’s shoulder. Steve snorted but wrapped one arm around Danny holding him close, the other hand resting against his hip, fingers brushing lightly.

“S’nice,” Danny mumbled against Steve’s skin. He yawned deep, his jaw cracking with the effort.

“Go to sleep, Danno,” Steve ordered his voice low and fond.

“Mmm. You too.” If Steve replied or took note of the instructions, Danny didn’t know it.

*******

The sound of his cell ringing jolted Steve awake. Danny grumbled at his side but shuffled over enough to give Steve room to move from under his embrace. The clock at the side of the bed read 5:23am as Steve reached for the cell. He glanced at the caller ID, shifting from the covers to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Kono, what have you got?”

“Morning boss,” she greeted, and Steve was pleased to hear that she sounded better than she had last night. “Did you sleep at all?”

Steve snorted. A year ago and he might have called her on her nagging, but now it was easy to recognize it as concern. “Yeah I did. So what’s up?”

“We just got notification that Takeru has popped up on the passenger list for the 8:17am flight into Honolulu this morning. The ticket was bought by the same company in Japan as the international flights, so it still doesn’t give us any idea of where he currently is, but at least we can pick him up at this end.”

“We need to meet that flight, find out who picks him up and where he goes. Is he flying with anyone, business associate, his wife maybe?”

“No,” Kono said. “Only one ticket bought, of course that doesn’t mean that someone else hasn’t booked onto the same flight. I’ve let the MPD know to alert their guys running surveillance on the Alua Freight people just in case. I’ve also spoken to the airline to keep me notified about the passenger list, so we should get updates on that.”

“Good work,” Steve said. He slipped from the bed and tucked the cell between his shoulder and ear as he opened the dresser and started picking out clothes. “Where are you now?”

“Just on my way to get Chin, then we’re going to head to the office and start grabbing gear.”

Steve picked up a ball of socks and lobbed it at Danny’s head, making a ‘come on’ gesture when Danny opened one eye and glared at him. “We’re heading in, and we’ll grab breakfast on the way.”

“Thanks boss.”

Steve dropped his cell on the dresser as he tugged on his boxers and reached for a clean set of cargos. Behind him, Danny had managed to get upright and Steve struggled to fight back the fond smile that wanted to break free at the sight. Danny was squinting bleary eyed at Steve, his hair a riot of tangled tufts that he always got when he went to bed with it wet, a crease from the sheets running across his shoulder and down one nicely shaped bicep.

“Come on,” Steve said softly. “Takeru’s flying into the city in a few hours. We need to get moving.”

Danny blinked some focus into his eyes and ran a hand through his hair as he slipped out of bed. “I don’t care if he’s landing in ten minutes, you’re giving me enough time to sort out this out,” he said, pointing to his ruffled hair. His voice was husky enough through sleep to make Steve’s shiver. 

“Fine, just get a move on.”

Danny glared. “And I’m picking where we get breakfast from. I’m not dealing with oatmeal or desiccated pineapple at dark o’clock.”

“It’s light out,” Steve protested, snagging up a black tee.

“Barely,” Danny muttered as he shuffled past Steve to the bathroom. “I want my morning sugar; you can indulge me for once,” he called from the bathroom.

Steve laughed. “I always do!” he yelled, raising his voice over the sound of running water. Truth was Steve would willingly let Danny have pretty much anything he wanted the second he asked for it. Sometimes though the arguments on the way to the almost inevitable capitulation were as much fun as seeing Danny’s wide smile when he thought he’d won. Being with Danny was easy, and Steve would lose all their arguments if it meant Danny would stay with him.

Takeru’s plane was ten minutes early when it taxied to the gate. Steve’s fingers flexed around the steering wheel of the Camaro as he listened to Kono’s hushed commentary through the earpiece. It seemed Takeru was travelling alone, with no luggage except a briefcase. Kono kept up with him through the bustle of the airport, veering off to get the car as they reached the concourse allowing Chin to take over. 

Steve’s gaze followed a black sedan that drove past their position, the rear windows blackened out. The car came to a stop at the main doors at about the same time that Chin informed them that their mark was heading outside. A man in a suit, broad shouldered and deferential to Takeru opened the rear door for him. As soon as the driver climbed back in the sedan, it moved from the curb. Steve moved the Camaro into the stream of traffic, following the sedan out towards the freeway.

“Did you get the plate?” Steve asked Danny.

“Yeah,” Danny replied, picking up his cell. “Give me a minute.”

Steve kept his distance from the sedan as Danny called in the trace on the plate. He wrote the details out in his pad.

“It’s owned by a company in Honolulu specializing in contract hire to the likes of big businesses. Companies hire the car and a driver for anything from a few hours to yearly contracts. So if we lose this guy then we should be able to pick him up again through the company.”

The car turned onto the freeway, heading back into town and Steve let Chin and Kono know so they could catch up. They followed the car in silence as it headed downtown, pausing just before an intersection as the sedan signaled to pull over in front of one of the office high-rises. They waited until they were sure Takeru was exiting the car, the same man from before got out of the car to open the door for the Yakuza boss. The sun glinted off the glass door to the building as it slid open, a man in his late fifties left the building and moved to Takeru, shaking his hand in greeting.

“Isn’t that Palea’s lawyer?” Danny asked, squinting as if to get a better view.

“James Frederickson,” Steve said with a nod.

“I think we’ve just connected some dots,” Danny muttered. “The Yakuza does business with Frederickson, Frederickson does business with Palea and has access to his boys. He then gets the Yakuza some muscle without having to mobilize their own guys, who are laying low without a leader, and goes after Gregory who is in business with the Yakuza, and there you have it - a full circle.”

“Why now?” Steve asked, watching as Takeru and Frederickson went into the building and the sedan drove off. “Why does Gregory come back to the island now after seven years?”

Danny shrugged. “We’ve just taken out Wo Fat and Noshimuri not to mention Noshimuri’s general, if they need to put a new boss on the islands then they’re pretty much going to have to start from scratch. Maybe they’re pulling in some favors and Gregory owes one.”

Steve didn’t reply. He didn’t have the answers yet, wasn’t sure he was asking the right questions either. What he did know was that they needed to find Gregory.

“We could always pay Frederickson a visit,” Danny suggested. “I mean we do have Kekoa still. We have him for parole violation, firearms possession, attempting to shoot a dedicated officer of the law – you – and his fingerprints on a murder weapon.”

Steve glanced in his rear-view as Chin and Kono pulled up behind them. “Not yet. I want to see where Takeru goes next and if we go in there he’ll know we’re on to him.”

Danny wound the window down as Chin and Kono came to stand by it. “Takeru’s meeting with Frederickson, Palea’s lawyer.”

“Well, that makes sense,” Chin said. “What are we going to do about it?”

“Leave them for now, but I want both Takeru and Frederickson followed,” Steve said.

“I’ve just heard from Max,” Chin said as he crouched by the car door. “He thinks he’s got a dental match on the second body from the reserve. A Peter Trenton, was thirty-two years of age when he went missing, local to Oahu. He doesn’t appear on the permit system at all, but a missing persons report was made by his mother the day after the Gregorys last had their permits. She said he was out walking the day he went missing.”

“Did Max find a cause of death?” Danny asked.

Chin shook his head. “Not yet. He’s still trying, but there are no obvious pre-mortem injuries and he thinks the grave site was too disturbed. We might never find out.”

Steve huffed out a breath, feeling the frustration of not having the answers he needed. “We need to find Gregory. He’s the key to all this.”

“I’m open to suggestions on how we do that,” Danny said, holding out a hand in a silent plea.

“As far as we know he’s without a car, a hotel and the contacts on his cell. Unless he’s switched it on since Tuesday?” Steve phrased the last as a question as he looked towards Kono.

Kono shook her head. “Still off, but we now have his call history. I just haven’t had a chance to look it over yet. I have his credit cards tracked so we should know if he’s used those, but again nothing on them yet.”

“Then we need to backtrack and start with where he’s been since he got here, and whether any of that matches with who he may know or met up with seven years ago. Maybe one of them is putting him up.”

“That’s still going to be a very small needle in a giant haystack,” Danny said. “Where do you even start?”

Steve shrugged. “Business associates, favorite bars, restaurants, regular hotels.”

“Favorite patch of sand,” Danny muttered sarcastically. Steve glared, causing Danny to raise his hands. “Okay, I’m sorry. I get that we need to find him as soon as we can, but he could be anywhere.”

“Well we can’t sit here arguing about it,” Chin said, as he stood up from his crouch. “We’re here to keep track of Takeru and Frederickson.”

Steve nodded slowly. “You guys are,” he said, before opening the car door and getting out.

“Wait, just what are you going to do?” Danny said, leaning across the front seat.

Steve ducked his head back down. “Find Gregory.”

“Oh great,” Danny muttered. “With what, a blindfold and a push pin to stick into a map? Are you forgetting Denning’s orders about the big bad Yakuza guy that we’ve actually now found? Or maybe his slimy shark of a lawyer that may be linked to both cases?”

Steve grit his teeth at Danny’s anger. He knew where it came from after all. While working on the Gregory case all he’d wanted to do was to hand it over and go after the Yakuza boss, and he was effectively turning that back around. “Danny, I know we need to keep tabs on Takeru, that’s why you’re going to be staying here. But Gregory looks like he’s going to be the key between the two. Kekoa is keeping quiet, and we can’t arrest Takeru when we have no idea why he’s here. Yes it might be coincidence but if I was Takeru and Gregory had been on my books, I’d want him found before he could do any damage.”

“So you’re going to make sure you find him first, right?” Danny sighed.

“And if I can’t, then you can follow Takeru and Frederickson around in case they get there first.”

“Great,” Danny muttered, “just great.”

Steve stood back up and moved round the Camaro to get his gear from the trunk. Danny was standing by the open driver’s door when he slammed the lid shut.

“Just, don’t go running off on your own without letting someone know, okay? I mean, I’d rather you didn’t go anywhere alone, but I’m going to lose that one before I start, so… just call okay.” Danny's voice was resigned, as though he was long used to losing these kinds of arguments, and Steve supposed he was in a way. It also suddenly registered with Steve that this was the first time since he’d been back from Japan that they were working apart on a case.

“I’ll call,” he promised. “Just keep me posted with any movements here.”

“We will,” Chin said, before Danny could say anything else. Steve nodded his thanks for the intervention before he set off down the street.

“Are you going to walk all the way back to the office?” Danny called before Steve had gotten more than a couple of steps down the street.

“Cab, Danno. I’m sure they have those in Jersey. Those big yellow sedans? You see them in all the movies, I thought they were real.”

“Steven, just go before I hurt you.”

Steve chuckled and turned back around, hailing the first cab he saw.

*******

“He drives me crazy,” Danny muttered though his clenched teeth. He was fairly sure if he had longer fingernails he’d be ripping the leather on the steering wheel he was grabbing it just that tightly.

“I know, brah,” Chin’s soothing voice came through the earpiece, “but you’re not going to change him. He’s been living by his own rules and standards since he was a kid, and there’s no-one that puts more pressure on him than he does himself.”

“I’d like to give a kick in the ass to whoever made him that way,” Danny grumbled.

Chin sighed. “Jack was a good cop, and I guess when it came down to it he really cared for Steve, but he pushed him so hard when he was young that it’s all he knows.”

Danny wasn’t one to speak ill of the dead, so he bit his lip to stop the words coming. Steve didn’t talk about his father much. Even when he did his tone was stilted and tinged with hurt, although Danny had noticed lately that the hurt seemed to lessen with each new truth that Steve managed to drag out of Joe.

He ground his teeth in a bid to not let his thoughts start thinking about Joe and his fucked-up way of trying to help Steve and glared through the windshield at the office building their suspects were still holed up in. He willed them to walk out, give themselves up and profess their numerous crimes. Not that it was ever that easy. There had been one case back in Jersey where the killer had walked in off the street to confess a murder the police had no idea had even happened, but things like that just didn’t happen to him. Here confessions only seemed to come when his partner was dangling someone over a cliff or a tank of piranhas. Danny made a mental note to check under the bed for the Mafia edition of ‘101 Ways to Get Someone to Talk’, he was sure he’d find corrections and suggestions in Steve’s neat scrawl in the margins.

Time trickled past slowly, and between the coffee they’d scored from the store at the corner of the next block, Danny had plenty of time to think in the silence of the car. When his cell rang he nearly tipped the contents of the cup in his lap. He cursed as hot coffee spilled on his thumb, and he stuck it in his mouth as he put the cup in the holder.

He glanced at his cell before answering it. “Please tell me you haven’t done anything stupid.”

“ _No Danno, I haven’t done anything stupid. But I think I know where Gregory is, or at least I think I’ve got someone who does know. Woods._ ”

“Woods?” Danny asked, trying to work out whether Steve meant a name or a place.

“ _The Ranger at Kaipapau. His cell number is in Gregory’s phone log not long before he turns his cell off. It’s one of the last calls he made, but he also made a call to Woods not long after landing in Honolulu. I’m guessing it’s not just to talk good hunting areas._ ”

“You think Woods is hiding him?”

Danny could visualize Steve’s shrug in the slight pause before he spoke again. “ _I think it’s as good a place as any. That mark on the tree Chin cleared up is a Forestry symbol indicating that no work is to be carried out in that area. Woods was edgy when we were there, and he pretty quickly shut that door behind him when he saw us._ ”

Danny had to concede the point. He’d noticed Woods’ fumbling while they were there but had thought it had been due to the rapid-fire questioning. “So Woods might be covering for Gregory and has been for the last seven years.” Danny sighed deeply. “Are you heading up to the reserve?” he asked, knowing the answer before Steve even replied.

“ _Yeah. If Woods isn’t there then I have an address for him_.”

Danny dragged his free hand over his face. “Tell me you phoned for some back-up to go with you.”

“ _There’s not much point until I can confirm Gregory is there._ ”

“Dammit, Steve…”

“ _Danny_ ,” Steve said loudly, interrupting Danny before he could get going. “ _It’ll be fine._ ”

“I swear to god those are going to be your last words,” Danny ground out.

“ _At least they’ll fit on a tombstone._ ”

Danny stilled. It wasn’t that long since tombstones were something Danny was trying not to think about with Steve missing. “That’s not funny.”

Steve’s sigh was audible. “ _Yeah I know, sorry. Look, I’ll call you okay._ ”

“You better,” Danny warned. If Steve didn’t, he’d be chasing him down whether that meant their marks got away or not.

“I take it that was Steve running off on his own again?” Kono remarked through the comms.

Danny slapped the steering wheel hard with the heel of his hand, relishing the sting. “Easy guess,” he muttered.

*******

When Steve pushed the door open to the Ranger Station Woods was sitting at the desk, and Steve was watching for any indication from the man that might give him away. There was a brief glance to the door that went to the back, but he smiled as he stood.

“Commander McGarrett wasn’t it?” Steve nodded. “What can I help you with?”

Steve came to a stop by the desk, putting himself between Woods and the door to the back. “I need to ask you a few questions about Shawn Gregory.”

Woods stilled, and Steve wasn’t sure if he was going to run or not, but there wasn’t room to pass him, which Woods must have noted by the time he finished scanning the room. “Is this about the bodies in the reserve?” he asked, nervousness layering his words.

“I think we both know it is.” Woods didn’t reply straightaway and Steve tried to lessen his glare. “Look, we know he’s in trouble, that there are people other than us looking for him. I can help him, and we’re probably the only people on the Islands that can right now.”

Steve’s hand went to his gun when the door to the back opened. Gregory stepped through, his hands outstretched. “It’s okay, Brodie.”

The tone of his voice was defeated, his posture slumped and telling much the same story. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in days, nor slept at all in the same amount of time. His clothes were rumpled and showing signs of having been worn since the date he went missing. Steve checked him over, looking for injury and concealed weapons. While he satisfied himself there was no danger, he left his hand on the butt of his gun.

“I… I was going to turn myself in, but I didn’t know who to. Last time I was here the cops were as corrupt as the guys I was stuck doing business with.”

“The Yakuza?” Steve asked.

Gregory nodded. “It was all an accident, and then I couldn’t get out of the deal without it all coming out, and when I tried they killed Sally for it.” Gregory’s hands shook as he crossed his arms tight around himself.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning,” Steve said.

Gregory looked to Woods who shrugged and nodded once. He sighed as he turned back to face Steve. “We used to visit the island regularly. We did some small-scale business with local farmers – mostly coffee growers, some clothing companies, that kind of thing. We’d come over to make sure everything was going okay, and make a vacation of it. We used to walk a lot in the woods, that’s how we got to know Brodie.”

Steve glanced at the Ranger, who nodded his confirmation. 

“Brodie mentioned that a lot of big business was done on corporate hunting trips, and we were looking to expand the business locally, really we wanted to move out here and we thought if we could get a big contract we’d be able to do that.”

“So seven years ago you decided to arrange a hunting trip with local businesses?”

Gregory shook his head. “Not even that. We applied for a couple of permits to give it a go, see whether we could make a game of it before we invited people along. The man, he… he was off the trails, we didn’t know he was there, and she didn’t mean to shoot him, I swear.”

“It’s okay,” Steve said softly. “You’re saying it was an accident when Sally shot Trenton?”

Gregory opened his mouth, and shook his head, his breathing ragged. “She didn’t mean to.”

“So what happened next?”

Gregory spared another look at Woods, but when Steve looked over Woods’ head was dipped. “I sent Sally off to get help, but I knew he was already dead. Sally came back a few minutes later with another hunter, she said the guy’s friend had gone to get help. He hadn’t, he must have doubled-back and he got behind us. The guy said he’d conceal the body, make it go away if we did something for them. If we didn’t they were going to shoot Sally and blame that on me.” Gregory stared at Steve, his eyes pleading. “What was I supposed to do?”

“At that moment, probably nothing, but as soon as you got free of them, you should have gone to someone,” Steve said, and Gregory hung his head. “What did they want from you?”

“They knew who we were.” Gregory’s voice was flat. “They said they wanted access to our containers and our route from the mainland into Japan. They knew about the regular shipments we had from Hawaii too and wanted to piggy-back on them. They used a legitimate contract with our company to launder money back to Japan.”

“Alua Freight?”

Gregory’s expression flashed with surprise. “Yeah.”

Steve sighed. “What made you come back after seven years?”

Gregory shook his head. “We wouldn’t have,” he said. “But we were threatened into coming. There was supposed to be a meeting with Alua Freight about the contract, there was something said about a change in management and that the terms would have to be looked at. We were told to get another permit and meet someone in the same place where we’d shot that man.”

“And you just went?” Steve asked. The Gregorys had been far enough away in Texas that they could have stayed there.

“What choice did we have?” Gregory shrugged.

Steve sighed and scratched his neck to stop himself commenting on the lack of common sense. “What happened?”

“There were two men waiting for us, big but young, hired thugs I thought.”

Steve dug his phone out of his pocket and searched for images of Kekoa and Derago. “These them?”

Gregory looked at the photos before nodding. “They said Frederickson had sent them.”

Steve stilled. “James Frederickson?” he asked.

“Yeah. He was the lawyer that drew up the contract between Alua and our company. Said it had to be legitimate.”

Steve rubbed his hands across his face. Now they knew where the connections were. “So what happened?”

Gregory slumped into a nearby chair, his head bowed as he examined his hands. “They said the terms of the contract needed renegotiating.” Gregory snorted. “We did everything they had asked for seven years, and their renegotiation was ‘ _buying_ ’ out our company.”

“And buying meant taking,” Steve guessed from the inflection Gregory had put on that word.

“They’d made us meet them up there to make a point. They were going to take us to Frederickson, make us sign over everything we once had. I argued and Sally… she just moved the rifle a little, she wouldn’t have fired it, but that big one, Kekoa, he snatched it out of her hand and hit her with it.” Gregory choked on his words and went quiet.

“Then what happened?” Steve asked softly. “We know you had company when you went back to the hotel.”

Gregory looked up sharply, only managing to meet Steve’s gaze briefly before dropping his head again. “They made me bury her, right next to where they’d made me bury that man. Trenton did you say?” When Gregory looked up at him, Steve nodded. “They followed me back to the hotel, told me to get cleaned up to meet Frederickson. I didn’t know what to do. I just panicked. I called Brodie, he told me try to lose them, meet him here and he’d help. I managed to give them the slip in traffic, I just jumped out of the car and ran. I’ve been here or at Brodie’s since.”

Steve paused, his mind running circles as he worked through what Gregory said. “How did you know one of them was called Kekoa?” he finally asked.

Gregory stuttered and looked at Woods. “He said that was his name.”

Steve turned his attention to Woods, watching as the man squirmed uncomfortably. “You want to know about the permit, right?” he said, flatly. Steve just stared. Woods shook his head and sighed. 

“I faked a camping permit in his name, backdated it. I thought if the police came asking one day then you’d go track him down and it would take the heat away from Shawn.”

“And how did you get his address?” Steve frowned.

“My brother used to date his girlfriend, Lindsey. She’d Facebooked that they were back in a relationship now that he was out of prison, I used her address from when she used to date him.”

“Small world,” Steve muttered, before sighing. “You’ll need to come in,” he said to Gregory after a long pause.

Gregory nodded, and stood wearily. “I figured as much. I’m tired of hiding anyway. I should have dealt with this seven years ago.”

“What about me?” Woods asked, coming to stand by Gregory.

“We’ll have to look at that,” Steve said. “At worse you’re an accessory, but I think we can look past it.” Woods nodded in relief, his shoulder slumping, and Gregory also seemed relieved as he briefly squeezed Woods’ shoulder, smiling weakly at him before turning back to Steve.

“Thank you,” he said, just as Steve’s cell started to ring.

“Thank me later,” Steve replied, digging his phone out. “Danny?”

“ _We’ve got movement here. Frederickson is still here but the sedan has reappeared and it looks like Takeru is taking off. I’m sending Chin and Kono after him._ ”

“Well I’ve got Gregory. Looks like Frederickson may have been orchestrating the whole thing, but whether that’s on Yakuza orders or off his own back I don’t know. We’ll need to bring him in.”

 _“Do you want me to sort out a warrant?”_ Danny asked.

Steve gestured for Gregory to follow him as he headed to the door. “Not yet. If we bring someone like Frederickson in without something solid then he’ll weasel his way out of custody before we’ve got the door shut. I want another go at Kekoa and Derago. If we can get them to turn it’ll be easier.”

“ _Do you want me to head back to the office, or meet you at the reserve_?”

“Office is fine,” Steve said, opening the door. “We’re…”

His comment about just leaving was drowned out by a burst of machine gun fire. Steve ducked as rounds embedded themselves in the cabin walls and the door by his head. He pushed Gregory back inside and kicked the door shut.

“ _Steve? Steve!_ ”

Danny’s frantic voice sounded far away through the cell phone speaker. Steve grabbed it from the floor where he’d dropped it, and unholstered his gun. “I’m fine, but we might need that back-up now,” he added.

“ _Of course you do._ ” Steve could hear the roar of the Camaro engine in the background, underlying the panic in Danny’s voice. “ _I’ll call for uniform, and I’ll be there as soon as I can, just don’t do anything stupid. Oh, and you better answer the damn phone when I call you back._ ”

Steve grinned despite the situation, wincing as another blast of gunfire buffeted the wall, smashing the glass of the window. “Are there any other ways in or out of here?” Steve asked Woods.

“There’s a fire exit out back,” Woods said, from behind his desk. “It’s an exit only, no entry from the outside.”

“Any windows in there?”

“In both the bathroom and the kitchen. They’re small though, but you could get a person through them.”

“Lock that door to the back,” Steve yelled over another burst of gunfire.

Woods edged towards the door and Steve heard the jingle of keys before Woods finally found the right one and locked the door. Gregory was laid out flat on the floor beside him and Steve grabbed his shoulder to get his attention. “Go over there with Woods,” he instructed when Gregory turned fearful eyes in his direction.

Steve waited until he’d made it across the room before edging to the window, glass crunching under his boots as he shifted. Using the butt of his gun he knocked out a spider-webbed pain of glass from the corner of the frame and peered out. There were three cars by his truck, two effectively blocking it in. One of the cars looked familiar and it wasn’t until a head popped up from behind one of the open doors that he placed it. She might now be dressed differently and have had a change of hairstyle, but the woman and the car were the ones that had blocked the exit to the garage the previous night. The supposedly lost tourist. The woman he now recognized as Takeru’s ‘wife’. He ducked back, shielding his face as she shot off another burst of gunfire, but he then quickly rose and taking aim, fired off a few rounds in her direction.

He tracked a man trying to move position, and changed his aim, satisfied when the man went down and didn’t move. He was forced to duck again when bullets hit the cabin. He tried to get an idea of how many and where they were placed, but at best guess he could only pick out three positions. He doubted that would be all of them. He slid underneath the window to the other side so he could cover the door better.

“You two okay?” he called.

Woods stuck his head around the corner of the desk, “We’re okay.” Steve could hear the fear in his voice, but that wasn’t something he could worry about just yet.

He peered around the frame when he heard the animated conversation in Japanese. He only caught a few words of what was said, none of it giving him any real clue as to what was being planned. He spotted a leg visible by one of the cars and took aim. His shot was followed by a scream of pain as one gunman broke cover clutching his shin. Steve barely heard his cell phone ring over the answering volley.

“Hey Danno,” he answered lightly, changing out the expended clip in his gun for a new one.

“ _Do NOT ‘hey Danno’ me Steven. Not when I can hear excessive amounts of gunfire in the background!_ "

Steve could hear the sirens of the Camaro through the speaker, and they did nothing to hide the strain in Danny’s voice. He wasn’t going to say that it was likely the fight would be over, one way or another, before Danny could make it across the Island. He was sure his partner didn’t need his own thoughts verbalizing.

“So, what do you want for dinner tonight?”

There was a long pause down the phone and Steve took the opportunity to thumb the phone onto speaker to free up his hands. He laid the phone by his feet as he went back to looking out of the window.

“ _You did not just ask me what I want for dinner!_ ”

Steve squeezed off some more shots. “I’m pretty sure I did, although I could be mistaken. I think there are a couple of steaks in the freezer that we could grill, although we could just order in a pizza.”

“ _There are times…_ ”

Steve didn’t hear the rest of what Danny said. A heavy volley of bullets hit the side of the cabin, wood splintered from the window frame and what small amount of glass was left in the window was rained down. The gunfire let up a second before the door burst open, and Steve spun his gun round to the intruder, firing without hesitation.

He grabbed the arm of the fallen gunman, dragging the dead weight out of the doorway until he could shut the door again. Darting back to the window in time to take out the man that was close enough to fire into the cabin. Steve did a mental calculation, knowing that there were four down and at least the female still out there. Although with three cars he figured there could be up to ten more out there. His cell was unsettlingly quiet, except for the rhythmic wail of the siren.

“So yeah, I was thinking pizza, maybe Chinese,” he said softly.

“ _Yeah okay,_ ” Danny said after a long moment. His voice was deceptively calm. It was the tone Danny got when Steve wasn’t going to like the lecture the follow-up conversation would no doubt bring. “ _I can go for pizza_.”

“Commander!”

Steve turned away from the window at Woods’ shout, spotting the reason for his panic; there was smoke seeping under the back door. Steve eyed the wooden walls before turning his attention back outside the window. There was still gunfire, but it wasn’t trying to take them out anymore, it was keeping them pinned. 

“I’ll call you back,” Steve said as he picked up his phone. He could hear Danny cursing him, but he couldn’t deal with Danny hearing anything more, and definitely not if anything went wrong. That single gunshot that killed his father was one sound Steve would forever re-live.

Mentally calculating the distance from the door to the nearest cover, Steve didn’t like the odds. He’d marked the positions of what he thought were two more gunmen in addition to the female, and if he could take one of them out he was sure he could break cover to deal with the other two. It was a case of whether one of them would show enough of themselves before they were forced out by the smoke.

Behind him the two men began coughing, and Steve felt the tug on his own throat, his lungs starting to feel the burn and he swallowed thickly. He heard Woods and Gregory move around behind him , and he glanced over his shoulder checking to see where the men ended up as they distanced themselves from the smoke that now curled in dark, thick clouds around the edges of the door.

Turning his attention back to the outside he flicked his gaze between the three positions willing one of them to reveal enough of themselves for Steve to take advantage. In a lull in the gunfire Steve swore he could hear faint sirens, but he could also hear the crackle and spit of fire beyond the door behind him.

There was a shout from the female, and she moved just enough as she gestured to the others that Steve could just get a shot off. He didn’t hesitate, squeezing the trigger three times. The first shot blew out the car window Steve had aimed through and then a blossom of red showered into the air. The woman's body jerked under the impact of at least one of the bullets and fell out of view. Steve pulled the remains of the front door open, darting quickly across the open space and into cover by the front of his truck. He could hear the sirens closer now, the rumble of tire on the gravel growing louder until two marked cars appeared through the trees.

Steve stayed in a crouch as he edged along the side of his truck, but straightened as he peered around it and saw the uniform officers chasing after two departing gunmen. There were two more officers cautiously making their way over to his position so Steve raised his hands as he stood.

“McGarrett, Five-0.”

He waited for them to acknowledge him, before he ran back to the cabin. “Okay, it’s clear,” he called to the two men still hiding within the smoking building. They coughed heavily as they pushed past him, and Steve held out an arm to direct them away from where the bodies were laid out, and towards the squad cars and the two officers.

There was a sudden rumble and crash, then the roof of the cabin was falling in over the back room. Steve jogged away from the building, before turning to watch the flames billow into the air, licking at the low hanging branches. He tore his eyes away and turned his attention to the scene in front of him. Of the bodies strewn around the parking lot, only one appeared to still be alive, the one Steve had shot in the lower leg. He was far from being coherent, and judging from the amount of blood spreading across the ground Steve didn’t think this one would make it either. He ripped a piece of the man’s shirt off and tied a tourniquet, beckoning one of the officers to stay with the man.

Steve tensed when he heard shots coming from the woods, and he started moving in the direction where the cops had gone after the escaping gunmen, but there was a scream of further sirens, two more squad cars pulling up followed by a paramedic. Steve sent the officers after their colleagues before turning back to look over the mess laid out before him. The paramedics were with the injured gunman, and the remaining officers were checking the other bodies and gathering up weapons. He glanced back at the cabin now well ablaze, and called over to one of the uniforms to make sure a fire truck was on route.

He allowed himself a brief moment to regroup. Breathing deep, and suppressing the cough that wanted to break out due to the smoke, he let his eyes roam over the whole scene. Through the activity Steve could hear the ring of a cell phone. He followed the sound to the sedan the woman had been driving, locating the cell in the footwell. Pulling a glove from one of his pockets Steve picked the phone up, the display showing no number or ID. He answered the call, waiting for a comment from the caller. He was met with silence.

“Who is this?” Steve demanded.

The call went dead. Steve frowned at it and shook his head before he dropped it on the seat next to the iPad that he picked up next. When the screen came to life he stared at the display a moment until he recognized the program as a tracker. He drummed his fingers on the back of the iPad before his eyes flicked to where his truck was parked.

He put the iPad on the roof of the car as he stepped over to his truck, carefully eyeing the rear, willing it to give up its secret before he dropped to the ground to check under the body. It took him a few seconds in the low light to pick up the small tracker attached to rear of the fender. Steve could only guess that the tracker had been placed while their exit from the parking garage had been blocked the previous night. He sighed and resisted the temptation to smash the bug under his boot, instead he headed back over to the sedan and the iPad and left the tracker with the rest of the kit.

He’d searched the car, finding little more than a rental agreement in the glovebox and some gas receipts. He was about to move to the other two cars when there was another wail of sirens, and the crunch of gravel and stones. Steve turned as the Camaro slid into view, his hand dropping to his pants pocket where his cell was and the forgotten promise to call Danny back. The car had barely stopped before Danny was out and striding up to him. Danny’s hand was raised, index finger pointing at him before he even got close, but when he did Steve could see the shakiness of his hand.

“You…!” Danny yelled.

“Danno?” Steve asked, his voice deceptively innocent, but his heart was pounding in his chest with the sudden swell of doubt. He didn’t think he’d seen Danny this shaken before, wasn’t sure if he pushed his luck too far this time, enough for Danny to finally have had enough and let what they had go, to let _him_ go.

“I hate you,” he yelled. “I haven’t said it to your face yet today so I’m saying it now. I have more gray hairs and stress lines because of you than I have through all the years of fatherhood and handling of an ex-wife, so do not play innocent with me, McGarrett, because I know you are far from it. I’ll call you back! What the hell was that? You didn’t even manage to do that one little thing for me!”

Steve only just held his footing as Danny’s finger poked painfully into his chest, but he sucked in a deep breath. “Danno, I’m sorry I didn’t call you back, but I’m fine.”

Steve held himself still under his partner’s scrutiny, he could almost feel the assessing gaze as it trailed over his entire body. Finally, Danny’s posture deflated and he reached out and gripped Steve’s wrist hard. “I see that, but you might not have been. It would have been nice if you’d bothered to ease my worrying.” 

“I’m good,” Steve said. He held Danny’s gaze until the detective finally dipped his head and nodded. He wondered if that was it, and he didn’t dare breathe out in case there was a ‘but’ as the very next word.

Danny sniffed loudly and finally let go of Steve’s wrist. “You smell like a barbecue,” he complained.

Steve snorted as the relief flooded through him, and he leaned back against the sedan as his legs shook. “Hm, barbecue… we still have those steaks in the freezer, if you weren’t completely sold on the pizza.”

“Steaks…? Are you telling me your entire conversation about what was for dinner was serious? Were you actually having a legitimate conversation about dinner while in the middle of a gunfight?”

Steve frowned. “Weren’t you?”

Danny waved his hands until they looked a second away from throttling him. “No! I was humoring you while breaking several traffic laws trying to save your ass, and hoping to god a conversation about pizza and steak wasn’t going to be the last one I had with you.”

“Oh,” Steve said softly. “So you do want pizza then?”

“I…” Danny sighed, and rested a hand against Steve’s chest. “I seriously wonder about you, babe.”

“I wonder about you a lot too.” Steve smirked, but the pat against Danny’s hand over his heart was gentle.

Danny’s retort was stalled by the ringing of Steve’s cell, and Steve grinned at Danny’s exaggerated sigh as he let his hand slip away.

“Go ahead Kono.”

“ _Boss, glad to hear you’re okay_ ,” Kono greeted.

“We’re fine. Have you still got Takeru?”

“ _Still got him, but we need to know what to do next. He looked like he was heading out to the shipyards, but he then had rapid a change of heart. They did a u-turn and sped back to the airport. He’s just bought a ticket for the next flight out to Tokyo. Do you want us to pull him in_?”

Steve looked up as the fire truck pulled in, before he turned and took in the carnage surrounding him, weighing up the chances of getting something to stick on Takeru. He knew Denning wouldn’t be happy, but Steve had been trying to find the best way to get Noshimuri out and back in charge where Steve could keep an eye on him and the Yakuza. It was better to know the enemy than to wonder when the next successor would arrive. Steve now had someone closer to home as a better focus – Frederickson clearly had some links that were less than legitimate and his reach on the islands and off them was seemingly quite wide.

“Let him go,” he said at last. “Just shadow him until that plane leaves with him on it.”

“ _Boss_?” Kono asked, clearly surprised at the decision.

“Let him go. We’re going after Frederickson instead,” he told them.

There was a sigh at the other end of the phone before Kono confirmed the decision. She signed off after Steve told them to meet back at the office.

“We’re just going to let him leave?” Danny asked, once Steve ended the call, his voice hushed so as not to travel to those milling around them.

Steve nodded. “I’d rather have him go back having failed, than them send someone out to replace or avenge him.”

“You don’t think they’ll try again anyway?”

Steve shrugged. “Yeah I reckon they’ll try again. But I think it’s time we start sending a message back to the Yakuza, and if that’s in the form of one of their hardest hitting generals having his ass kicked before running home, then I’ll take it. I want control this time.”

“And Denning? What are you going to tell him?”

“You let me worry about Denning.”

Danny stared at him in silence for a long moment, and Steve held his gaze. “I wish you’d share whatever burden you’re carrying that Denning dropped on you.”

Steve slapped Danny on the shoulder and squeezed. “No you don’t,” he replied softly.

*******

It had all been pretty anticlimactic in the end, Chin thought, although from the way Danny called it World War III had been waged up at the reserve. He’d flicked through some of the photos that had been sent through from HPD and had to admit he was heading towards believing Danny’s comments rather than Steve’s ‘it was nothing’.

They’d managed to break Kekoa at last. It came after a chat with the much more talkative Derago. Steve managed to crack Kekoa’s tough guy attitude with the truly terrifying expression of homicidal glee he got on his face when he’d told Kekoa that no, he couldn’t see his lawyer because Frederickson was currently occupying the cell next to him. Chin had to admit his grin was almost as smug as Danny’s, although he wasn’t quite brave enough to echo Danny’s Rambo comment.

The downside had come when they had to go talk to Peter Trenton’s mother. She’d been resigned to getting the news one day, and although Chin had seen the relief at the end of an ordeal, confirmation was never something that was easy to deal with. He’d bumped shoulders with Kono as they’d left, the only promise he could make to her was that it never got easier delivering that kind of news.

He leaned back in his chair and cracked his knuckles as he finished the last of the forms and reports that were required that day, leaving the field reports for after a long deserved beer and the recommended daily quota of sleep. They had hours of work waiting for them anyway, logging evidence, taking statements, premise searches, all the mess with Alua Freight, and with Gregory’s story. Then there was the fallout that would come from Frederickson being taken down, all the old cases the arrest affected that would need revisiting… Chin didn’t really want to think about what was left to do. Thankfully he was interrupted by Kono sticking her head around the door.

“We’re almost ready to head out. Danny’s just clearing some last bits of paperwork off, but Steve says he’s buying the beer and pizza. Apparently there was some argument with Danny over what to grab for dinner that I wasn’t privy to.” Kono shrugged as if to say ‘you know how they are’.

“Has Steve got his wallet?” Chin asked, his voice tinged with doubt as he pushed his chair back from his desk.

“Yeah, Danny frisked him to make sure.”

Chin smiled. “Ah, is that what the kids are calling it these days?” he joked. He turned off the desk lamp and grabbed the rest of his stuff.

Kono laughed, “With those two it’s probably exactly what you’re thinking. I figure they’ll tell us when they’re ready.”

They headed into the bullpen, watching Steve behind the closed door of the office as he talked on his cell. His face was grim when he briefly turned, and Chin shared a look with Kono. Before he could comment on what it might be about, Danny joined them.

“Okay, I’m good, this day is thankfully now done and we need to be moving,” Danny said, waving his arms toward the door in a hurry along gesture.

Chin nodded towards Steve’s office. “The bank roll isn’t moving yet.”

Danny sighed, made a few steps towards Steve’s office before Steve spotted him and held up a hand to stall him. Chin saw Danny’s back tense up as he crossed his arms, and for the first time Chin wondered just how much Steve still held back, even from his partner. Only a few seconds later Steve ended his call, and Danny took a step forward, only for Steve to stop him again as he lifted his cell back to his ear. A single finger was raised, asking for one minute. Chin was pretty sure he could hear Danny’s teeth grind.

It didn’t take anything close to a minute before Steve finished, shutting off the lights in his office before he joined them.

“What was that about?” Danny asked, as Steve walked up to them.

“Nothing,” Steve said lightly before turning to face them all. “You guys head on over to the bar, I just have one stop to make before I join you.”

“It better be at an ATM,” Danny warned.

“I just need to meet with someone and then I’ll be there, twenty minutes tops,” Steve said before heading to the door.

“You are not getting out of paying,” Danny yelled, following Steve’s long strides to the door. He turned back to Chin and Kono. “Why does he always do that?” he called, before jogging to catch up with Steve.

“Just open a tab Danno, I'll pick it up when I get there.”

“I’ve heard that one before Steven…”

Chin shared a long-suffering glance with Kono as the arguing voices echoed down the hallway before pushing himself away from the table. “Shall we?” he asked, making a sweeping hand motion for Kono to go ahead.

Kono laughed and mock-curtseyed, “We shall.”

Chin took one last glance around the now quiet office, mentally saying goodnight to a long day before heading after Steve and Danny.

*******

Denning called Steve into his office as soon as he knocked on the door, the secretary seemingly having left a while ago. He walked over to the desk but refused the offered seat. He wasn’t here to defend his actions, even if that was what Denning wanted, he was here to make sure Denning didn’t withhold information again. Steve was done having an ax hanging over his neck, and his sources had come back with information that might just get Denning to back off.

“I’ve read your report regarding Kuro Takeru. It would seem that while you were able to take out the considerable threat posed by Tora Ikeda, his supposed wife, you decided to let the main target travel back to Japan. Maybe you can tell me why?”

Steve folded his arms across his chest, and raised his chin in defiance. “If you’ve read the report then you know why, sir. What isn’t in the report, because it wasn’t in our brief is why you sent us after him in the first place.” 

Denning sat forward in his chair, and his tone dropped dangerously as he spoke again. “I wasn’t under the impression, Commander, that I needed to explain myself to you for you to follow orders. Especially not where a known Yakuza threat is within our jurisdiction.”

“I’m not disputing your order, or the identification of the threat, I’m questioning why you allowed a personal vendetta to cloud your judgment. I know what Takeru did to your friend in Tokyo. And I know better than anyone what that feels like, but you do not get to use my team for your own revenge. You talk to me, and I’ll calculate the risk.”

Denning snorted but didn’t look away from Steve’s glare. “And what about your revenge? Is it okay to use your team for that? Because I seem to recall a number of occasions in which they were placed at considerable personal risk in your quest to bring down both Hess and Wo Fat.”

Steve clenched his jaw. He’d have happily handled everything to do with Hess and Wo Fat by himself, but Danny, Chin and Kono, even Jenna, had put themselves on the line to help him, even when he’d asked them not to. His voice was low, the anger creeping into his words. “I didn’t ask them to get involved. They knew the danger and they made their own choices. You deliberately withheld information. Even if you couldn’t have had the CIA release their files, the least you could have done was give me a proper brief with your concerns rather than the Sesame Street version you handed over.”

“I was the only family David had and I didn’t have enough parts left to fill a coffin. I don’t even need to ask you how that feels. Given the chance I would have taken down the son of a bitch myself the minute he stepped through customs, and you - you just waved goodbye to him at the damn airport,” Denning yelled, standing up from his chair.

“We had nothing on him beyond association,” Steve shouted back, unfolding his arms. “The first half-wit lawyer he flashed yen at would have gotten him out of custody, no matter what orders you gave to keep him inside. At most we could have gotten him as an accessory, but there were no witnesses left alive to testify to that and my team can give him an alibi. He’d have walked away knowing he’d won and got a major coup on us. This way he’s lost, he’s running. Knowing the Yakuza, I can’t see him living long after that plane touches down.”

Denning held his hands out wide, “So, what would you have me do now? Where does this leave us?”

“I’m not going to take this any further,” Steve said quietly. “I haven’t spoken to anyone else about the intel, the team doesn't know I’m here. But there is something I want in return for that.”

Denning snorted and dropped back into his chair, his posture tense. “Right, of course, lay it on me.”

Steve had only one thing he wanted, and that was protection for his team. “I want no more threats of shutting down 5-0, no reassignments or transfers without going through me first. You don’t get to hang anything over them, and I want full immunity back on all our cases, not just those that you pick and choose.”

“Is that all?” Denning asked, his voice flat, and Steve couldn’t read him.

Steve paused, wondering if now was the best time to bring up the other Yakuza issue. His silence was long enough for Denning to make note.

“What?”

“I think we should release Adam Noshimuri.”

“Like hell,” Denning growled.

Steve rested his hands on his hips. “The most we have him on is threatening an officer. Kono believes he’s trying to clear up the Yakuza operations so they’re legit, and I trust Kono on this. Adam Noshimuri isn’t a saint, but I don’t like the idea of someone worse coming along, someone we can’t keep track of as easily. The next person they send could be another Takeru, and neither you nor I want that.”

Steve had watched Denning’s furious gaze, looking for any hint that he was listening to Steve’s reasoning, but Denning had turned his head away and Steve had no idea what the response would be.

“If I release him, the consequences of anything he does are on your head,” Denning said quietly, but Steve knew there was a promise there to follow through. Denning leaned forward in his seat. “The minute Noshimuri does anything, and I do mean anything, that puts anyone on my islands at risk he’s back inside and you’re looking for a new job.”

Steve nodded after a moment’s pause. “If you promise to keep the rest of the team out of that deal then I accept. Whatever we’ve said in here today regarding Takeru stays here, I won’t say anything again unless you give me cause to do so.”

Denning sighed deeply as he drummed his fingers on the top of his desk. Steve kept still and stared at the top of Denning’s head until he finally looked up at him. Denning nodded. “I’ll give you control of your team back, and you’ll get your immunity and means. And I’ll give the order to release Noshimuri. I hope your better-the-devil-you-know approach works, Commander, because if it doesn’t and an all out war with the Yakuza starts then you’re not going to like the consequences.”

Steve tried not to let his relief bleed through into his features, and he forced himself to keep his back rigid, his face impassive as he nodded. 

“Don’t give me any reason to regret this, McGarrett.”

“I won’t, provided in return you don’t make me regret giving you my trust. I won’t be as silent next time.”

Denning briefly dipped his head before holding out his hand. The gesture surprised Steve, but he shook it briefly before letting go. “I don’t doubt that,” Denning sighed when Steve stepped back again.

Steve nodded before turning on his heels and heading to the door.

“Steve?”

Steve paused with his hand on the door handle, turning to look over his shoulder.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I put your team at risk. I think I might be starting to understand what they mean to you.”

Steve nodded his acceptance of the apology, hoping that whatever relationship they had from here on wasn’t going to be clouded with resentment over Steve’s bargain. “I’m sorry too. I hear Jackson was a good man.” His ex-CO held Denning’s friend in good regard, and that was enough for Steve.

Denning turned his gaze to where three picture frames sat to one side of his desk. “He was,” he said softly before snorting. “You’re a lot like him; I’d have hated to see you and David gang up together against me.”

Steve smiled slightly, not sure how to take Denning’s comment. “If I hear anything about Takeru, I’ll let you know. Goodnight Governor.”

“Goodnight, Steve.”

Steve dipped his head, and wondered again at Denning’s familiarity, and at the use of his first name. He doubted he’d get his answer here tonight and he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it if it was offered, so he turned the handle, closing the door softly behind him.

When Steve walked into the bar there was already a good collection of empties littering the table top, and while the rest of his team appeared relaxed Steve knew them well enough to recognize the cloud of tension sat over them. He was halfway across the bar before Danny spotted him. Steve smiled easily, letting some of the relief from getting Denning’s consent bleed through into his body language, and just like that he saw Danny relax.

“Finally!” Danny exclaimed, spreading his arms out wide. “I was beginning to think I’d be left with your bill again.”

Steve took the vacant seat to Danny’s right. “I said I’d be here,” he said, before he waved over a waitress and ordered another round of beers.

“Yes, well excuse me if I suspend belief until you’ve signed off on the check,” Danny muttered. “We’ve ordered the pies, and yes I did lower myself to your disgusting sense of taste and have yours spoiled by fruit.”

Steve grinned and let himself slouch down into the seat as the typical banter began to fire around the table. He finally felt that normalcy had returned after so many months of unrest and the shadow of Denning’s noose hanging over them. 

The pizza had been demolished by the time the ringing of a cell phone broke into the laughter and Kono glanced at her cell half-heartedly before her posture suddenly tightened. Steve watched her as he tipped back the last mouthful of beer from the bottle he’d been nursing since he arrived.

“Adam?” she asked tentatively as she answered the call.

Steve tried to feign surprise when three pairs of eyes turned to him and he forced himself to swallow down the mouthful of suddenly sour-tasting beer. He kept his eyes on Kono, refusing to turn to Danny, to the one person who would see the truth. He knew Danny would have tried to ask about where he’d been once they got home, and he’d likely guess when the first case came along where they could exercise their newly restored immunity. That didn’t mean Steve would answer Danny’s questions or confirm his suspicions, nor would he answer the unspoken questions in Chin and Kono’s expressions.

Steve waved Kono away with the order to take the next day off when she guiltily asked if anyone would mind if she bailed early. Chin soon followed, but not before his knowing gaze flicked from Steve to Danny and then back. Steve hoped his poker face held, and that none of his apprehension came across in his goodnight. When Chin left Steve waved the waitress over for the tab, handing his card over without even glancing at the total. The silence that had fallen around the table with Chin’s departure remained until Steve scrawled his signature on the receipt and put his wallet away.

He finally looked at Danny then. There were questions in the blue eyes staring back at him, and Steve wished he didn’t know his partner as well as he did, because then he wouldn’t recognize the hurt, the flash of anger, or the sad resignation. Danny looked away first, and Steve might have missed the low sigh Danny gave as he stood up if he hadn’t had all his senses trained on him. He felt Danny’s hand squeeze his shoulder. Steve’s tense muscles relaxed a little under the familiar touch, but he hated the way the gesture seemed to signify that Danny was giving up the fight before it had even started.

“So,” Danny said as his hand dropped away, “I was telling Grace about your winning streak with the cards the other night and she’s up for a re-match if you are. I said yes, I figure it stops her from setting up a poker-school at Kamekona’s and I end up with a pre-teen hustler for a daughter.”

Steve briefly squeezed his eyes shut as he stood. “Yeah?” he asked, praying that the rapid beating of his heart and the tremor in his body wouldn’t be given away in his voice. “Okay. But only as long as she promises to leave me some candy this time, she’s becoming expensive.”

Steve could act like nothing was wrong if that’s what Danny needed. He just wished he didn’t have to.

*******

“They actually said, and I quote, ‘it definitely looks like your knees went through some over usage’! I had to check my cell to make sure I hadn’t drunk texted someone.” Danny laughed and grabbed Steve’s arm, jostling him as he tried to input the code to the alarm system.

“I swear I’m cutting you off from _Text From Last Night!_ ” Steve chuckled, finally keying in the number before closing and locking the front door.

Danny was relieved to feel less tension in Steve’s frame when he laid his hand on him this time. He knew Steve must have made a deal with Denning for Noshimuri to be out, and it scared Danny just what Steve had promised, because he knew that whatever it had been Steve would have made sure the rest of them were protected from it. Danny was trying to stop himself from asking, no matter how much his mind screamed at him to put it into words, to demand answers.

Steve made sacrifices for everyone. Danny was never going to be able to change that, and so all Danny could do was make his own sacrifices in turn. He’d bite his tongue so he didn’t voice the questions Steve couldn’t or wouldn’t answer, and he’d pray Steve never knew how much it hurt that he didn’t share his burdens with Danny. 

He’d tried to get back to normal on the drive home, his mouth spewing anything to remove the sudden skittishness that had appeared after the almost boneless relaxed state Steve had been in before the call. And if the hand he laid on Steve’s thigh as he drove seemed possessive and full of promise, then Danny didn’t care because at least when they came together every worry faded out for a brief moment, and that was something Danny needed right now. He could agonize about Steve’s actions, and his silence. He could waste time wishing for Steve to talk to him, but he’d prefer the heat of Steve’s touch that would override the chaos of his thoughts enough to sleep.

Danny cleared his throat. “Hey, I need some guilty pleasures in my life, besides I like seeing how many of them fit you. The one about explosives I debated whether you actually submitted it or not and I was this close,” he held up his thumb and forefinger in front of Steve’s face so there was a millimeter or two gap between them, “to going through your cell to check.”

Danny watched Steve’s eyes cross as he tried to focus on Danny’s fingers, but he yelped as Steve let his inner ninja loose, turning and pushing him up against the closed door before he even realized Steve had moved. His body shuddered as Steve leaned against him, fitting perfectly, and to Danny it felt like home, every inch of him screaming ‘yes’!

Steve’s breath was hot against his ear when he spoke, his voice low and filled with the same heat as his body. “Am I your guilty pleasure, Danno?” he whispered.

“There’s nothing guilty about you,” Danny murmured as he buried his hands under Steve’s shirt. “Except it’s criminal that you’re wearing clothes.” This was what he needed, what they _both_ needed.

Steve nipped at Danny's ear before trailing a path of kisses down his neck, across his chest where his shirt gaped open at his neck, and then back up the other side until his lips rested against Danny’s other ear. “So I don’t make you feel guilty?”

“Only for wanting you so much,” Danny whispered, trying to tug on the back of Steve’s shirt to move him enough for Danny to get to Steve's mouth. “Come on,” he whined when Steve resisted.

Steve chuckled and finally left Danny’s neck alone to kiss him, his tongue sweeping across his lips before pushing into Danny’s willing mouth. There was a battle for dominance, not just of the kiss, but through their hands that roamed over heated skin, attacking buttons and zippers. They weren’t even going to make it out of the hallway and Danny didn’t care, because after the nightmare from earlier today Danny wanted proof that Steve was still here.

“God Danny, what you make me feel.” Steve sounded wrecked, just the way Danny liked him, when all those worries disappeared and there was nothing for Steve to protect or fix.

“I know, babe,” he whispered.

And he did. There was always going to be so much of Steve’s life he’d never know, so much in his head he’d never hear, but in these moments, that he could take Steve apart was one truth that Danny could see and feel. He was going to take what he could get for as long as he could get it. He pushed at Steve’s now naked chest until he took a step back, just enough space to let Danny drop to his knees.

“And you wonder why your knees are shot,” Steve breathed, but he pressed his hands against the door above Danny’s head to brace himself.

“Sacrifices, babe,” Danny whispered, forcing his mind to ignore the previous sacrifices he’d been thinking of. “Yours involve following the rulebook for once, mine involve crutches.” If Steve managed to say anything coherent, Danny didn’t hear it, only the breathy moans and hitched breathing, the curses and the endearments, as Danny made him come apart.

If Steve was embarrassed at how fast he came, it was nothing to how he made Danny fall apart seconds later. Danny surveyed the mess around them where they sat slumped against the wall, still half dressed, the hallway strewn with what clothing they had managed to take off.

“I think that’s a new record,” Danny muttered, as he finally managed to kick off his shoes and wiggle out of his pants.

He felt Steve’s shrug where he leaned against him. “There was the time in the driveway.”

“Don’t remind me, I think I still have the shape of the seatbelt clip imprinted on my ass.”

“I can do a thorough check if you want, you know, just to make sure.”

Danny glared at Steve as Steve waggled his eyebrows. “You’re insatiable.”

“You’re complaining?” Steve asked incredulously, and Danny was smugly satisfied when Steve stumbled to his feet, his usual easy fluidity failing him.

“I didn’t say that.” He grabbed Steve’s outstretched hand and let himself be pulled to his feet and into the embrace of Steve’s arms. “I might just love you for it.”

“Might?”

Danny was going to wave off Steve’s comment, but there was an edge to his voice, a forced calm, and the tension was back in Steve’s body. He would have pulled back, to look Steve in his expressive face so he could work out what he felt, but Steve tightened his arms, perhaps knowing his weakness and not wanting to show it.

“No, there’s no might about it,” Danny said softly, breathing in deeply to find some courage to say what he should have said before now. “I do. But I love _you_ , rather than for any one thing you do.”

Steve’s embrace lessened enough for him to pull back, his hands framing Danny’s face. He pressed a soft, chaste kiss against Danny’s lips that held more intimacy than anything that had come before. “Even after I didn’t call you back?”

There was hesitancy in Steve’s tone, and Danny realized Steve wasn’t just asking about today. He was asking about all those unanswered calls while he was running after Joe, and about every fault or wrong that he couldn’t change in his personality that had always driven people away.

Danny swallowed against the bile that rose. For a long time to come Danny would live with the panic and heartache from today’s events, of hearing the gunfire and being too far away to do anything, but it was unlikely it would be the last time. He knew he’d carry on waking up from nightmares where Steve never came home from Japan, or from Korea, or from the next place he ended up in trouble because he’d gone off on his own again. Steve wasn’t going to change, and those were some of the ‘it’s not easy cons’ of being with Steve, some of the things Danny had to put up with in order to keep the pros. Steve would never be able to stop Danny from worrying, just as Danny could never stop Steve from doing the things that made him worry, the things that made Steve who he was.

“I’m not saying I want it to happen again, ever, but yeah,” Danny breathed out and rubbed his hands along Steve’s flanks, “even after you didn’t call me back I still love you.”

Steve grinned, bright and full of sunshine and Danny felt his chest constrict. “I love you too, and I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner, I’m sorry you doubted me.”

“I knew,” Danny answered softly, and he did he realized. He’d just never put a name to Steve’s sacrifices, his nosiness, his gifts, his teasing. But he looked at Steve’s expression now and realized it was one he’d seen so many times before but had never been able to put a name on to identify. It was with that thought that he felt the weight of worry he’d been carrying dissipate, and a smile spread across his face. He cleared his throat and slapped Steve’s hip, “Come on, you said something about inspecting my ass. I expect you to do a thorough job of it.”

Steve reached with both hands and grabbed the ass in question, “Oh I will,” he said huskily, so much promise in the words that Danny wondered what he’d unleashed. “You know how focused I can get on a task.”

Danny muttered a curse under his breath as Steve dragged him towards the stairs. Not that he was complaining. Not now that he knew he wasn’t alone in this. Not ever.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art for siluria's Hakai](https://archiveofourown.org/works/448782) by [theeverdream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theeverdream/pseuds/theeverdream)




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